isUserVerifyingPlatformAuthenticatorAvailable returns false on iOS 26.2 Developer Beta

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Created 3w

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I’m currently developing an application using WKWebView. After updating to iOS 26.2 Developer Beta, the following Web API started returning false:

isUserVerifyingPlatformAuthenticatorAvailable MDN: https://developer.mozilla.org/ja/docs/Web/API/PublicKeyCredential/isUserVerifyingPlatformAuthenticatorAvailable_static

This issue did not occur on iOS 26.1 — it only happens on the beta version. Has anyone else encountered this problem or is aware of any related changes?

OS: iOS 26.2 beta 3 (23C5044b)

Answered by Systems Engineer in 868252022

There are two things at play here:

In iOS 26.2 and macOS 26.2, we changed the behavior of isUserVerifyingPlatformAuthenticatorAvailable() to better match the intentions from the spec. Previously, it almost always returned true. Starting in these OSes and Safari 26.2, it now only returns true when the user has at least one passkey manager set up.
In a previous beta version of 26.2, there was an issue where Safari would always return false. This should be fixed in the current beta to now respect the above behavior.

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Answer 1

Systems Engineer OP

Apple

1w

Accepted Answer

There are two things at play here:

In iOS 26.2 and macOS 26.2, we changed the behavior of isUserVerifyingPlatformAuthenticatorAvailable() to better match the intentions from the spec. Previously, it almost always returned true. Starting in these OSes and Safari 26.2, it now only returns true when the user has at least one passkey manager set up.
In a previous beta version of 26.2, there was an issue where Safari would always return false. This should be fixed in the current beta to now respect the above behavior.

0

Answer 2

daisudaisuke OP

1w

Thank you very much for your support, @Systems Engineer .

I tested this issue with iOS 26.2 RC, released on December 4, 2025 (https://developer.apple.com/documentation/ios-ipados-release-notes/ios-ipados-26_2-release-notes).

In Safari, the behavior is now correct and isUserVerifyingPlatformAuthenticatorAvailable() returns true. However, in WKWebView, the behavior remains unchanged and it still returns false.

Is there any additional information you need from me to further investigate this issue? Thanks again for your assistance.

1