Screenly now supports passkeys.
You can sign in using your device’s biometrics, PIN, or a hardware security key, with no password, no one-time code, and no email required.
Where this fits in our security journey
This is the third step in the same story, not a new one.
We removed password login entirely earlier this year. Passwords were the weakest link in our authentication chain: they get reused, shared, and stolen, and a breach on some unrelated service could end up costing you your Screenly account too.
One-time codes replaced email and password login. They fixed the reuse problem: there is nothing durable for an attacker to steal, and the code is bound to the browser session that requested it, so seeing it alone is not enough to sign in. What they did not fix was friction. You still have to leave what you’re doing, find the email, and copy a code before it expires.
Passkeys are the next step because they close both gaps at once. There is no code to intercept, forward, or type into a fake site, so they are phishing-resistant by design. And there is no email to go check, so they are also faster: authenticating is a single tap, not a context switch.
How passkeys work
When you set up a passkey, your device generates a key pair. The private key stays on your device and never leaves it. The public key is stored with Screenly.
When you sign in, our server sends your device a challenge. Your device signs it with the private key, confirming it’s you first with your fingerprint, face scan, PIN, or a hardware security key like a YubiKey. We verify that signature against the public key on file. You are in.
Your private key and biometric data never leave your device. Screenly never sees them and never needs to, so there is nothing on our end for an attacker to phish, intercept, or leak that could be replayed to sign in as you.
Passkeys follow the FIDO2/WebAuthn open standard, the same standard used by Apple, Google, and Microsoft. They work natively on macOS, iOS, Android, Windows, and Linux. You can sync them across devices through iCloud Keychain, Google Password Manager, or a third-party password manager like 1Password or Bitwarden. Hardware keys work across any device they are plugged into.
Why this is better than a one-time code
A one-time code asks you to leave what you’re doing: open your email, find the code, copy it, switch back, and paste it before it expires. On a good day that costs you a few seconds. On a slower day, your provider is dragging, the message is buried under fifty other emails, or it lands in spam and you’re refreshing your inbox instead of signing in.
A passkey skips all of that. Confirm with Touch ID, Face ID, your PIN, or a hardware key, right there on the login page, and you’re in. No inbox, no waiting, no second app: just the shortest path between “I want in” and “I’m in”.
What if you lose access to your device?
Your passkey is only as reachable as the device (or sync account) it lives on, so it’s worth knowing what happens when that’s not an option.
If you’re signed in on a device without your passkey, for example a new laptop, you can always fall back to a one-time code, exactly like before passkeys existed. Losing a single device does not lock you out.
A synced passkey through iCloud Keychain, Google Password Manager, 1Password, or Bitwarden is really only as safe as that account, so it’s worth protecting it with the same care as your Screenly login itself.
You can also add more than one passkey, one per device, which is the simplest hedge: register a passkey on your phone and your laptop, and losing either one still leaves you a way in.
How to get started
Go to Account Settings > Security > Passkeys, give the passkey a name, click Add passkey, and confirm with your biometrics, PIN, or hardware key. That is it.
Once added, you will see a Sign in with Passkey button on the Screenly login page.
You can add multiple passkeys, one per device. If you lose access to a device, you can remove its passkey from the same settings page and add a new one.
For a step-by-step walkthrough, see the Passkeys support article.
An option, not a replacement
We removed passwords entirely in favor of one-time codes. Passkeys are not another removal. They are a faster option alongside the one you already have. If a one-time code still works for you, nothing changes. If you add a passkey, sign-in just gets quicker, and we are glad to have it available for every Screenly user.
If you run into any issues getting set up, contact our support team and we will help.
