The latest security feature for Gmail enables users to recover their accounts with a little help from their friends.

Google is now allowing its customers to select trusted friends and family members, whose accounts can now be used to retrieve recovery codes in cases where other means aren't available.

It comes as the tech giant continues to nudge its user base toward passkeys , which for some time now it has viewed as the future of account authentication.

The issue with passkeys, however, is that people routinely lose devices. When they lose their smartphone, for example, they can't immediately access their other email accounts, or SMS messages for one-time passcodes , potentially leaving them without access to their email.

Once a trusted recovery contact is set, users can select which

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