Hardware Ready Ready to Bench?
biometric password autofill. Google Chrome for Android is about to receive a significant security update. The company is testing the introduction of biometric authentication, such as fingerprints or facial recognition, as a mandatory step before the browser automatically fills in passwords on various websites.
Currently, the password manager integrated into Chrome simplifies users’ lives by offering the ability to save new credentials, suggesting secure combinations, and automatically filling login fields when returning to a previously visited site. However, this feature carries a concrete privacy risk.
biometric password autofill: why it matters
If you temporarily lend your unlocked smartphone to a friend or colleague, they could potentially access personal websites by exploiting the auto-fill feature that is active by default. To mitigate this vulnerability, developers are testing an additional level of control.
The discovery of this new experimental phase is credited to user Leopeva64, known on the X platform for thoroughly analyzing browser development versions. This is not an absolute novelty for the Mountain View company, which had already started testing a similar feature at least since September 2024.
Subsequently, the feature appeared in the Dev and Canary versions of Chrome last August, only to be removed from the code before reaching the public stable version. Now, work seems to have resumed with greater conviction.
The recent Chrome Canary build introduces a specific hidden parameter, named exactly “Biometric reauth for password filling”. Details and activation procedures were identified in version 157.0.8083.0 of Chrome Canary downloadable from the Play Store, but also on slightly older iterations like 157.0.8079.0.
The operation is very intuitive: when the system asks if you want to use a saved password, confirming the pop-up immediately triggers the biometric authentication request. Only after successfully verifying the user’s identity does the browser proceed to fill in the empty fields on the page.
What changes and what are the effects
Those who wish to try this option early can update the application, type the string “chrome://flags” in the address bar, search for the dedicated entry, and set it to “Enabled”. After restarting the browser, you just need to visit a site where you have saved credentials.
It is interesting to note that manual activation may not produce immediate effects on all devices, suggesting a gradual rollout or one linked to specific Google server configurations. The return of this tool confirms the willingness to offer greater peace of mind to security-conscious users, awaiting an official and definitive debut in the stable version.
This new feature was announced by Luca Zaninello on Gizchina on October 4, 2026.
Source and further reading on biometric password autofill: original article.
* Content created with the assistance of artificial intelligence systems.