A passkey is a digital credential stored securely on your smartphone. To use your passkey, you unlock your phone the way you normally do (face unlock, fingerprint, or PIN), and that's it. There's no password to type, and no code to enter.
Here’s how it works when signing into your Stonehill account:
- On your phone: Your passkey will be automatically detected. All you do is approve the sign-in prompt with your usual phone unlock method.
- On a computer or other device: Select the passkey option to scan the QR code shown on the sign-in page with your phone. Then, approve the sign-in with your usual phone unlock method.
Why is this better?
- Nothing to remember or type. In almost all cases, you don’t need to type anything to sign in.
- Phishing-resistant. A passkey only works on a genuine Stonehill sign-in page. A fake one can't trick you into handing it over, because there's nothing to trigger it in the first place.
- Nothing to steal. Your passkey never leaves your phone, so it can't be intercepted, leaked in a data breach, or guessed by an attacker.
- MFA built-in. Having your phone and unlocking it covers both steps at once, so the need for a separate MFA prompt and entering a code goes away.
- Synced with your phone’s backups. Finally! Getting a new phone no longer breaks your sign in. Your passkey automatically follows you to any device(s) where you’re also syncing the same password manager (iCloud on iOS, Google Password Manager on Android, and/or any third-party password manager of your own choosing).
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Confirm each item below before you start. Most failed first attempts come from a missing item that interrupts the setup partway through.
✅ OS version. iOS 17 / Android 15, or later.
✅ Signed in to your phone's account. Your phone must already be signed in to your Apple Account (iPhone) or Google account (Android).
✅ Screen lock set. Ensure your phone is secured with either a passcode, fingerprint or face scan, so you aren’t sent to Settings mid-setup.
✅ Password manager configured.
- iPhone
- Turn on iCloud Keychain sync so your passkey moves with you to your next iPhone. Go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud > Passwords and turn on syncing for this iPhone. Complete any prompts that appear, such as turning on two-factor authentication or approving this iPhone from another device. (Menu names vary slightly by iOS version.)
- Make Passwords the place passkeys are saved. Go to Settings > General > AutoFill & Passwords. Turn on AutoFill and make sure Passwords is enabled. (If Microsoft Authenticator is listed, turn it off.)
- Open the Passwords app. Search for it, open it, and tap through any welcome screens until you see your list of saved items (an empty list is fine).
- Android
- Make Google your preferred passkey service. Go to Settings > Security and privacy > More security settings > Passwords, passkeys, and autofill, and select Google. If Microsoft Authenticator is listed as an additional provider, turn it off.
- Samsung phones only: switch from Samsung Pass to Google. Samsung phones use Samsung Pass by default, which works, but your passkey won’t move with you to a non-Samsung phone, so we recommend Google. (Menu names vary by phone; searching Settings for “passkey” usually finds the right screen.)
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Before reading further: For your first passkey, these steps must be completed on your smartphone. Do not attempt to create your first passkey on any other device such as a tablet or computer. Once your first passkey is created on your smartphone, you can then use it to optionally create additional passkeys on other devices you own and use frequently.
- Using your smartphone, scan this QR code with your camera (or, if reading this on your smartphone, long press on the QR code itself, then choose the option to open the link)
- Sign in with your Stonehill account. If you need to approve a 2-digit code with the Authenticator app, just be sure to manually switch back to your browser window after successfully entering the code, as the Authenticator app will not do it for you.
- Back in the browser window, you should see a screen that says "Let's keep your account secure." Click Next.
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Follow the prompts to register a passkey on your device. These prompts will differ slightly depending on your device, operating system, and password manager. The passkey will save to whichever password manager your phone currently uses.
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Once you see this screen, your passkey has been successfully created on your smartphone and is ready to use.
Once you've successfully created your first Stonehill passkey on your smartphone, you can then optionally choose to create additional passkeys on other devices you own and use frequently.
- Click Add a sign-in method.
- Select Passkey.
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Follow the prompts to register a passkey on your device. These prompts will differ slightly depending on your device, operating system, and password manager. The passkey will save to whichever password manager your phone currently uses. Once you see this screen, your passkey has been successfully created on your smartphone and is ready to use.
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Signing in with your passkey
Once you have a passkey for your Stonehill account saved onto your smartphone, here's how it will work.
Signing in on your smartphone
When prompted to sign into your Stonehill account on your smartphone itself, your phone will automatically present you with the opportunity to use it. You won't need to enter your password or even your email address - simply tapping into the email address field on a legitimate Stonehill login screen will automatically match with your passkey and ask you to use it.
The exact way this will look will vary depending on your device, OS, password manager, and which application you're signing into, but it should always be obvious, something like this:
Signing in on other devices
Passkeys are stored on the device used to create them. Once you have your first passkey saved to your smartphone, you can also create more passkeys on other devices you frequently use if you wish, by repeating the passkey creation process on those devices, by starting at Step 2. This is optional, however, as your smartphone passkey can be used to sign in on almost any other device as well with 1 extra step. Here's how:
When prompted to sign into your Stonehill account on devices that do not have a Stonehill passkey already saved on them, you may see a popup offering to "use a passkey from another device."
Selecting this will present two options. Choose the "use a phone or tablet" option to be presented with a QR code. (Again, options and language here will differ slightly from device to device, but should always be clear.)
Alternatively, if you enter your email address and click next, you should be immediately presented with the same QR code.
Scan the QR code with your smartphone's camera (the same smartphone or other device that already has your Stonehill passkey on it). Your device will make a brief, temporary Bluetooth handshake with the device you're signing in to in order to verify that you are the person making the request, so allow any Bluetooth-enable prompts you may see on either device.
Once the handshake is complete and you've unlocked your smartphone's device security (PIN/face scan/fingerprint etc), you will be instantly logged in - no password or MFA codes needed.
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