Instructions describing how Passkey authorization works for third-party clients have appeared in the Telegram API documentation.
The main caveat of this new feature is that Passkeys will not be universal. You will not be able to log into the official Telegram app using a passkey created in a third-party client (and vice versa).
As a reminder, late last year Telegram added support for Passkeys — a convenient and secure way to log into your account using biometrics or a PIN code without needing SMS. In our FAQ at the time, we clarified that this option was only available in official Telegram clients.
💬 You can only use Passkeys to log into an existing account. Creating a new account still requires receiving an SMS code.
How This Will Work
Now, developers of alternative clients have the opportunity to implement this feature, but with a significant limitation:
Passkeys only work in the app where they were created. A Passkey from the official Telegram app will not work for a third-party client, and a key from a third-party app cannot be used in either the official Telegram app or any other unofficial builds.
Why Is This Happening?
This kind of isolation is not an artificial restriction imposed by Telegram, but rather a limitation of the Passkeys technology itself, which prohibits using keys on third-party websites and apps to protect against phishing.
The @tginfo editors note that the introduction of Passkeys support for third-party apps is a positive sign. Despite the technically inevitable fragmentation of keys, Telegram is not leaving users of alternative clients without modern security methods, providing them with a reliable alternative to OTP over SMS, which is expensive and sometimes unavailable in countries where Telegram is banned.
#security #authorization #passkey