Apple is bringing iCloud Keychain to the PC via a Chrome extension

Google Chrome Canary (Image credit: iMore)

What you need to know

A new update to iCloud for Windows suggests iCloud Keychain is coming to Chrome on PC.

Apple looks set to bring iCloud Keychain to Chrome on PC after an update to the Windows iCloud app pointed to a new extension being in the works.

First spotted by The 8-Bit, yesterday's iCloud for Windows update mentions an iCloud Passwords extension for Chrome – an extension that doesn't yet exist.

Icloud Keychain On Windows (Image credit: The 8-Bit)

The update is a part of iCloud 12.0 on Windows. Once you update the iCloud app from the Microsoft Store, a Passwords section appears with the iCloud Keychain logo. When you click the Apply button, iCloud prompts with an option to download the "iCloud Passwords" Chrome extension.

The arrival of iCloud Keychain in Chrome would mark the first time the password management feature has appeared outside of a Mac, allowing users to make the most of it. Cross-platform support is something that the likes of 1Password and LastPass have long lauded over iCloud Keychain, but that could be something that changes in the very near future.

There's no indication of when we can expect this new Chrome extension to be made available to the world, but it's unlikely to be too far out given the fact Apple is talking about it in other apps.

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.