Credential Manager is a library that unifies the interfaces for traditional sign-in methods (like passwords and federated sign-in) and the new, passwordless sign-in method (passkeys). Users can see all their sign-in methods in one place so they don’t have to tap three different places.
Credential Manager also makes it easier to pick the right sign-in method by deduping and automatically proposing to the user the safest method (eg between a password and a passkey the latter will be shown).
For developers, Credential Manager unifies the implementation of multiple sign-in methods within a single API. That means developers can add support for passwords, federated sign-in, and passkeys with a single API.
Credential Manager supports passwords and federated sign-in on Android 4.4+ (though Google Play Services recently dropped support for KitKat) and passkeys on Android 9+. On Android 13 and lower, Credential Manager is backed by Google Password Manager which is part of Play Services.
On Android 14, Credential Manager is part of a system app and is able to support multiple (including third-party) password managers. 3P password managers that implement Credential Manager are able to save and retrieve passkeys in Android 14.
At Google I/O, the company revealed that multiple 3P password manager developers including 1Password, Dashlane, Keeper, and Okta will support Credential Manager.
