The answer is that they're being used to pass an authentication challenge. Pass + key is no different.
https://developers.yubico.com/Passkeys/Passkey_concepts/Sing...
I wouldn't be surprised if password managers implement sharing between users tho
Could be clearer for the tech folks though I agree.
Because the word "password" has been in use for a long time, before computers, for the purpose of physically passing from one place to another.
The thing about password wasn't that it is a secret word, it's that it allows you to pass somewhere. Typically, passwords were a shared secret (i.e. not secret).
A digital key is typically different from a password in that it's not a word, i.e. not something people can remember a type. It's more like something you have than something you know.
In the context of cryptography it makes sense to distinguish keys from passwords, and public keys (used to "lock" data) from private keys (to "unlock" data). The word key is used for that concept because of the semantics of how keys are used.
A passkey is an abomination. A key, a-priori, is an object that opens locks; and we already have words for keys that allows you to pass somewhere: e.g. door keys.
A pass, in general, is something you present to pass somewhere, whether it's spoken or written; a key is not something you present to pass somewhere.
We have pass words, pass slips, hall/press/ski pass badges, etc.
We don't have pass keys, because you don't show a key to pass somewhere. You use it.
A password encoded as a QR code that you could show to a sensor would be a passkey.
Whatever Google has is probably something else.
You cannot use the private key within a passkey for general purpose data signing, for example.
this isn't just public key encryption. Think of it as a physical Yubikey but embedded in your ...whatever.
They don't need to be rebranded, they need to be taught in high school with the same words we've always used to talk about them.