Unlock with Touch ID on your Mac (Chrome and Firefox)

On a Mac, Chrome and Firefox can’t use your fingerprint on their own — the browser has no way to reach the Touch ID sensor. So Hey Be Safe offers a small, free helper app that bridges the two: once it’s installed, the Hey Be Safe extension can ask macOS for a Touch ID check and unlock your safe, instead of you typing your safe password every time.

Your safe password never leaves your Mac. The helper stores it in your Mac’s built-in Keychain, locked behind Touch ID, and our servers never see it. Turning this on is a one-time setup that takes about two minutes. Here’s each step.

What you’ll need

• A Mac with Touch ID — a MacBook Pro or Air with the Touch ID sensor, or a desktop Mac with a Touch ID Magic Keyboard.
• macOS 11 (Big Sur) or later.
• Chrome or Firefox, with the Hey Be Safe extension already installed.
• You’ve signed in to Hey Be Safe in the extension at least once (the setup asks for your safe password, so you’ll want to know it).

Why an app and not just the extension? Browsers deliberately don’t let a web extension talk to your fingerprint sensor. The only supported way to reach Touch ID from Chrome or Firefox is a native app the browser is allowed to talk to. The helper is exactly that — nothing more.

Step 1 — Download the helper

Download the Mac app →

This downloads a file called HeyBeSafeTouchID.dmg to your Downloads folder. (You can also start this download from inside the extension: open the Hey Be Safe popup → Settings → Download the Mac app.)

Step 2 — Open it and move it to Applications

1. In your Downloads, double-click HeyBeSafeTouchID.dmg. A small window opens showing the Hey Be Safe Touch ID app next to your Applications folder.
2. Either drag the app onto the Applications folder, or just double-click the app once — it will offer to “Move Hey Be Safe Touch ID to Applications?”. Click Move to Applications and it puts itself in the right place and reopens.

Moving it to Applications matters: the browser connection points at wherever the app lives, so it needs a permanent home rather than the temporary download window.

Step 3 — Let it connect to your browser

When the app opens, it sets everything up for you automatically — it connects itself to every supported browser you have installed (Chrome and Firefox). You’ll see a green “You’re all set” message listing the browsers it turned on for.

There’s nothing to configure here. Leave the app; you don’t need to keep it open. It only runs when your browser asks it for a Touch ID check.

Step 4 — Turn on Touch ID in the extension

This is the last step, and it’s done in the browser, not the app:

1. Click the Hey Be Safe icon in your browser toolbar to open the popup.
2. Open Settings.
3. Find the Touch ID unlock section and click Click to enable.
4. Type your safe password once and click Confirm.
5. Your Mac shows a Touch ID prompt — touch the sensor to confirm.

That’s it — the section now reads Touch ID: On.

Why does it ask for my safe password here? Just this once, so it can hand the password to the helper, which locks it in your Mac’s Keychain behind your fingerprint. After this, unlocking never asks you to type it again.

Step 5 — Use it

The next time your safe is locked, open the Hey Be Safe popup. Instead of the password box, you’ll get a Touch ID prompt — touch the sensor and you’re in. (If you’d rather type your password on a given day, that option is still there too.)

Is this safe?

Yes — it keeps Hey Be Safe’s zero-knowledge promise intact:

• Your safe password is stored only on your Mac, in the system Keychain, protected so it can be read only after a live Touch ID match.
• It never leaves your machine and our servers never receive it.
• If you add or remove a fingerprint in macOS, the system automatically invalidates the stored password — Touch ID unlock simply turns off and you re-enable it (Step 4) to store it again. This is a security feature, not a bug.

Troubleshooting

The extension still says “install the app” after I installed it. Make sure you opened the app at least once and moved it to Applications (Step 2). Then, in the extension’s Touch ID unlock section, click “I’ve installed it — check again.” If it still doesn’t connect, fully quit and reopen your browser and try again.

The app says “Touch ID isn’t available.” Your Mac doesn’t have a Touch ID sensor, so fingerprint unlock can’t be turned on there. Everything else in Hey Be Safe still works as usual — you’ll just keep using your safe password.

Touch ID unlock turned itself off. This is expected after you change your Mac’s fingerprints (or sometimes after a macOS update). Your stored password is invalidated for safety. Just repeat Step 4 to turn it back on.

I want to turn it off. Turn off Touch ID unlock in the extension’s Settings. To remove the browser connection entirely, open the Hey Be Safe Touch ID app and click Turn off.

See also

• How do I use Hey Be Safe? →
• Set up autofill on your phone →