Google adds support for fingerprint sensors on Android phones and TouchID on Macs to Chrome 70 beta, allowing developers to use biometrics for authentication
Unless otherwise noted, changes described below apply to the newest Chrome Beta channel release for Android, Chrome OS, Linux, macOS, and Windows.
Context & Ripple Effects
Biometric sign-in has been migrating toward the browser for years: Google first put fingerprint hardware at the center of its mobile OS with its 2015 plan to add fingerprint authentication to Android, and three years later Chrome 70 beta extends that capability to the web itself, exposing phone fingerprint readers and Mac Touch ID to developers as an authentication option.
The move matters because it turns the browser from a password entry box into a credential surface. The follow-on coverage shows Google compounding this bet — biometric-protected Autofill for credit cards in 2020, Face ID and Touch ID guarding Incognito tabs on iOS in 2021, and finally passkey sign-in on Android and Chrome in 2022 — all built on the developer access this beta first opened.
First-order effects
- Web developers gain a supported API path to replace password forms with device-held biometric credentials on Android phones and Macs, effective immediately for anyone testing the Chrome 70 beta across desktop and Android.
- Users on those devices can now sign in to participating sites with a fingerprint or Touch ID rather than typing credentials into the page.
Second-order effects
- Google's own surfaces adopt the capability fastest: Autofill payment flows and account access get biometric gates in subsequent releases, shifting Chrome's value proposition from rendering to trusted identity handling.
- Sites that once built custom two-factor flows face pressure to accept platform biometrics instead, since the browser now offers them natively at no integration cost beyond adopting the standard.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the browser becomes the default authentication layer of the web — the endpoint of this arc is the passkey model Google beta-tested in 2022, where site-specific passwords give way to device-bound cryptographic credentials unlocked by the same sensors Chrome 70 first exposed.
The trend: Authentication is migrating from per-site passwords into the browser and operating system, with each Chrome release converting device biometrics into web-standard credentials.