Apple's Safari Technology Preview 71 supports the WebAuthn protocol, which lets websites authenticate identity with a hardware security key in a USB port
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple's move puts Safari in line with the other major browsers on password-free login: by late 2018, Chrome, Firefox, and Edge already supported WebAuthn, and the W3C's approval of WebAuthn as an official standard followed within months of this preview release. The Technology Preview channel is where Apple typically lands web-platform features first, as it did with WebKit's WebRTC support before shipping it broadly.
What makes this preview notable is that it is the on-ramp to Apple's own authenticators: the later iOS 13.3 beta extended Safari's key support to NFC, USB, and Lightning FIDO2 security keys, and Apple then went further by bringing Face ID and Touch ID logins to the web in Safari 14.
First-order effects
- Web developers can now test WebAuthn-based logins against Safari users, closing the gap that previously made passwordless deployments impractical for anyone serving Apple's browser base.
- Hardware security key makers gain access to Safari traffic, since USB-key authentication now works in Apple's browser rather than only in Chrome, Firefox, and Edge.
Second-order effects
- Websites weighing passwordless rollout no longer have to maintain password fallbacks specifically for Apple users, lowering the cost of dropping credentials altogether.
- Apple's follow-through with Face ID and Touch ID in Safari 14 shifts the competitive question from 'does your browser support WebAuthn' to whose built-in authenticator replaces the separate hardware key purchase.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, authentication consolidates around device-bound biometrics controlled by platform vendors, with external security keys relegated to high-assurance niches — a structural shift in who controls identity on the web, from standards bodies and key vendors toward Apple, Google, and Microsoft.
The trend: Browser vendors are converging on WebAuthn as the replacement for passwords, with each platform steering users toward its own built-in authenticator over third-party hardware keys.