How to Set Up and Use Passkeys on iPhone and Android in the UK
Passwords are a pain. They get reused, forgotten, phished and leaked, often all in the same year. Passkeys offer a cleaner way in: instead of typing a secret that a fake website can steal, your phone proves it is you with your fingerprint, face or PIN, and nothing useful ever leaves the device. If you live in the UK and use an iPhone or Android phone, you can start using passkeys today on many of the accounts you already have, including Google and Apple.
This guide walks through the setup on both platforms and covers the backup step people most often skip. Take it slowly, one account at a time.
What a passkey actually is
A passkey is a pair of digital keys created for one account on one service. The private key stays locked on your device, protected by your fingerprint, face or PIN. The public key goes to the service. When you sign in, the service sends a challenge that only the private key can answer, and your phone asks you to confirm with your usual unlock method.
That design is what makes passkeys hard to phish. A fake login page cannot trick you into handing over a passkey the way it can trick you into typing a password, because there is no password to type and the private key never leaves your phone. It also means a data leak at a service does not expose a secret an attacker can reuse elsewhere.
Before you start: three quick checks
First, make sure your phone has a screen lock: a PIN, fingerprint or face unlock. Without one, anyone holding your unlocked phone could use your passkeys, so this is not optional.
Second, update your phone software to a recent version. Passkey support is built into current versions of iOS and Android, but older versions may behave differently or lack the option entirely. In most recent versions you will find the controls in Settings, under Passwords on iPhone or under your Google account security settings on Android.
Third, sign in to your phone's own account: your Apple ID on iPhone, or your Google account on Android. That account is what syncs your passkeys across your devices, so you want it set up before you create your first passkey.
Set up a passkey on iPhone
On iPhone, passkeys are stored in iCloud Keychain and sync across your Apple devices when you are signed in with the same Apple ID and have iCloud Keychain turned on.
Step 1: Open Settings, tap your name at the top, then tap iCloud. Make sure Passwords is switched on under the saved items list. If it is off, turn it on and wait a few moments for it to sync.
Step 2: Pick one account to start with, ideally Google or Apple itself. Open that service in Safari or its app and go to its security or sign in settings. Look for an option labelled Passkeys, or a button that says Create a passkey.
Step 3: Follow the prompt. Your iPhone will ask you to confirm with Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode. That confirmation creates the passkey and saves it to iCloud Keychain.
Step 4: Sign out and sign back in once, just to test it. On the sign in screen, choose the passkey option, confirm with Face ID or Touch ID, and check that you get straight in. If it works, you have proved the setup before you rely on it.
Set up a passkey on Android
On Android, passkeys are normally saved to your Google account through Google Password Manager, which syncs them across Android devices and Chrome when you are signed in.
Step 1: Open Settings, then look for Google or Passwords, passkeys and autofill, depending on your phone maker. Samsung, Pixel and other brands label these menus slightly differently, but the passkey controls live in that area in most recent versions.
Step 2: Make sure you are signed in to your Google account and that Google Password Manager is set as your autofill service. This is what lets Chrome and apps offer to save and use passkeys.
Step 3: Open a service that supports passkeys, such as your Google account, in Chrome or its app. Go to Security, then Passkeys, and choose Create a passkey. Confirm with your fingerprint, face unlock or PIN when asked.
Step 4: Test it the same way as on iPhone: sign out, sign back in, choose the passkey option and confirm. A successful test means the passkey is saved and ready.
The backup step you must not skip
This is the part that protects you if your phone is lost, stolen or replaced. On iPhone, passkeys sync through iCloud Keychain, so signing in to a new iPhone with the same Apple ID and turning on iCloud Keychain should bring them back. On Android, signing in to a new phone with the same Google account and enabling Google Password Manager does the same job.
Before you need it, check two things. First, that your Apple ID or Google account itself has a recovery option you can still reach, such as a recovery email or phone number you control. Second, that you have a second way into your most important accounts, such as a trusted second device or saved recovery codes stored somewhere safe and offline.
Do not rely on screenshots of recovery codes saved in the same phone you might lose. A paper copy in a drawer at home, or a note in a trusted password manager on another device, is a far better backup.
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