In short
LinxyPass lets you sign in to a participating website without a password. The website shows a Linxy Mark or a short code; your phone answers it; the browser signs in. The App holds the list of sites this device is enrolled with, and you can break any of those bindings whenever you like.
The detail that makes it worth trusting is what happens on the approval screen. When a sign-in reaches your phone as a notification, the phone does not simply show you a number and ask you to confirm. It shows you three numbers and asks which one is on the browser. You cannot answer that without looking at the screen that asked — which is precisely the point, because an approval you can grant blindly is an approval somebody else can provoke.
On this page
What LinxyPass is doing
There are three parties in every LinxyPass sign-in: the browser asking to be let in, the website deciding whether to let it, and your phone vouching that the request is yours. The phone holds a key that was created on it and never leaves it. Enrollment is the act of introducing that key to a particular site.
Two consequences follow, and both are the point rather than side effects. Nothing you know can be phished out of you, because there is nothing you know. And the binding is to this device, so possession of your email, or of a password you used somewhere else, gets an attacker nowhere on its own.
Four ways a sign-in starts
| Route | When you use it |
|---|---|
| Scan the Mark | The website is on another screen — a laptop, a desktop, a kiosk. Point the App at the Mark on its sign-in page |
| Long-press the Mark | You are signing in on the same phone. Press and hold the Mark image; the App checks it and answers |
| Type the code | The site shows a short code instead. Enter it in the App |
| Approve a notification | The site knows who is signing in — you entered your username or email on its page, or the browser remembers you from before — so the request comes to you. Nothing to scan |
The long-press route is the one people do not expect to exist. On a phone there is no second screen to point a camera at, so the App takes the image you pressed, verifies that it really is a Linxy Mark, and proceeds from there — a screenshot of somebody else’s sign-in page will not do.
The approval, and the three numbers
Alongside the numbers, the approval screen shows what it knows about the browser asking: which browser, which operating system, roughly where it is. Any of those the server cannot determine are simply left off rather than guessed at. If the location is somewhere you are not, deny it.
Your first pick is final. Linxy checks it, and a wrong pick cancels the sign-in; the browser then offers Start over with a new number. Three wrong numbers for your account at the same site within 15 minutes pause sign-in there for 15 minutes.
Older sign-in paths, and requests that arrive without the three choices, fall back to showing the number and asking you to confirm it matches. That is the previous behavior and it still works; it is not a downgrade you have triggered. And on lnxy.me itself, and some other sites, a scanned sign-in usually has no number at all: each sign-in there has its own image, so the App goes straight to your face or fingerprint.
Approval notifications only arrive if notifications are allowed for the Linxy App. The App asks for that right after your first approval on the phone.
Approving from a watch
Some sign-in requests can also be answered from a paired watch, on Apple Watch and on Wear OS watches: those from a browser that remembers you, the page that says Welcome back. The wrist shows the number and one tap approves it without taking the phone out. A sign-in where the number has to be picked — somebody typed your username or email — is answered on the phone; on Apple Watch it says Confirm on your iPhone. See Approving from your watch.
Enrollment, and sites that review first
Before a site can be signed into it has to be enrolled, which is the introduction between your device’s key and that site. Some sites let you enroll by scanning their Mark: the App asks Which number is on the sign-in screen?, you pick it and confirm with your face or fingerprint, and you are enrolled and signed in on one screen. Others ask you to sign in the usual way first and turn LinxyPass on from inside your account there. See Enrolling a site.
Some do not, and that is a setting on their side rather than a fault on yours. When a site reviews its members, enrollment comes back needing approval, and the App offers a Request access sheet: your name and your email address, sent to the site. Someone there reviews the request in their own dashboard. If they approve it you receive an enrollment email carrying a token, and following that completes the enrollment.
Your sites, and revoking one
My Sites lists everything this device is enrolled with, with a count on the icon that stops at nine and shows 9+ beyond that. It shares its screen with your tickets and passes under a segmented control.
Revoking a site breaks the binding between this device and that site. The next sign-in there will need enrolling again. Revoke when you are giving the phone away, when you no longer use a service, or when anything about a site’s behavior has made you uneasy — it is a cheap action with no lasting cost.
The fifth way: from a Brand card
All four ways above begin with the site asking. For a site you are already enrolled with, the App can begin instead. Its Brand card in Connections carries a bar with up to three segments — Connect, Website, and a solid Sign in on the right — and Sign in runs the Signal Ring: your face or fingerprint, then the site opens in your browser signed in. No Mark, no code, no number to match. The LinxyPass screen keeps the last three Brands you signed in to this way under Recent sign-ins, one tap each, and a long-press on the card offers to pin the Brand to your home screen.
Two things follow from the direction being reversed. The site will, once per browser, ask Open <your name>’s account? before letting you in — it is confirming the browser, not you. And a paused Enable Biometric switch does not stop it: the ceremony is itself a biometric check, so a successful one lifts the pause. Full detail in One-Tap sign-in and Pinning a Brand to your home screen.
Symptoms, causes and fixes
| Symptom | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Scanning the Mark says enrollment is needed | This device has not been introduced to that site yet | Enroll, or use Request access where the site reviews members |
| Enrollment returns needing approval | The site does not allow enrollment by scan alone | Submit the request. Someone there has to approve it before you can proceed |
| The enrollment email has not arrived | Mail is slow, or it went to spam | Check spam. Enrollment links expire, so request a fresh one rather than reusing an old message |
| A notification arrived that you did not start | Somebody else is attempting to sign in as you | Deny it, and change the password on that site if it still has one |
| None of the three numbers matches | The browser you are looking at is not the one that asked | Deny. Start the sign-in again from the browser in front of you |
| The sign-in was canceled after I picked a number | The number did not match; the first pick is final | Choose Start over in the browser and match the new number |
| No approval notifications arrive | Notifications are not allowed for the Linxy App, or LinxyPass approvals are switched off | Allow notifications for the App; check LinxyPass approvals in its notification settings |
| Nothing happens after you approve | The sign-in page timed out while waiting | Reload the page and sign in again. Sessions do not wait indefinitely |
| Long-press on the Mark does nothing | The image is not a Linxy Mark, or is too degraded to read | Reload the page at full size. A screenshot of a screenshot rarely survives |
| A site you removed still appears | The list has not refreshed | Come out and back in. If it persists, revoke it again |
Things people commonly get wrong
Related reading: Your passes, Setting up the Linxy App, Recovering your account after losing your device, and When something is not working.