The Fastest Way to Sign a Document Is Already on Your Face

Most people still think of electronic signatures as something you draw with a mouse or type your name into a text box. That mental model is about five years out of date. Biometric electronic signatures powered by WebAuthn passkeys are here, and they change what "signing a document" actually feels like — for the better.

GoodSign is the first eSignature platform to offer passkey signature as a standard feature, and once you understand how it works, you'll wonder why every tool doesn't do this.

What WebAuthn Passkey Signing Actually Means

WebAuthn is the open standard behind passkeys — the same technology your bank uses when it asks you to confirm a transaction with Face ID or Touch ID. Instead of storing a password (or in this case, a signature image) on a server, WebAuthn creates a cryptographic key pair unique to your device and your biometrics.

When you authenticate with your fingerprint or face, your device uses that private key to produce a cryptographically verifiable proof that you approved the action. Nothing biometric ever leaves your device. The server only sees the proof, not the data that created it.

Applied to document signing, this means your Face ID or Touch ID doesn't just unlock your phone — it becomes the signature itself.

Why Traditional eSignature Flows Create Unnecessary Friction

Here's the standard experience with most eSignature tools: you receive a document, open a link, type your name or draw something approximating a signature, click confirm, and close the tab. Repeat that for every document, every time.

For a freelancer signing a handful of contracts a year, that's tolerable. For an agency processing dozens of agreements a month — client onboarding, project scopes, NDAs — the cumulative friction is real. Signers drop off. Deals slow down. Someone sends a follow-up email.

The problem isn't the signing moment itself. It's everything surrounding it: the cognitive load of yet another verification step, the awkwardness of drawing with a trackpad, the minor-but-real annoyance of doing the same thing repeatedly.

Save Once, Sign Instantly From Then On

This is where passkey signature genuinely earns its place as an industry-first feature. The experience works like this:

• A signer receives a document and registers their passkey the first time — a one-time setup that takes seconds
• Their device stores the private key, linked to their Face ID, Touch ID, or device PIN
• Every future document from any sender on the platform is signed instantly with a single biometric prompt
• No drawing. No typing. No re-entering details.

The repeat signer experience is categorically different. By the second document, signing feels closer to approving an Apple Pay transaction than filling out a form. That's not a small improvement in UX — it's a structural change in how quickly agreements move.

It's also why 65.3% of documents sent through GoodSign are signed within 24 hours. Removing friction from the signer's side isn't just a nice-to-have; it directly compresses the time between "sent" and "done."

The Security Case Is Just as Strong as the Convenience Case

It's worth being direct here: biometric electronic signatures are not just more convenient — they're more secure than a typed name or drawn signature.

A typed name proves nothing. A drawn signature is trivially reproducible. A WebAuthn-backed passkey signature is cryptographically tied to a specific device and a specific biometric. It can't be phished, it can't be replicated, and it doesn't rely on the signer remembering anything.

Each signed document carries a verifiable audit trail that shows when the passkey was used and on which device. For small and medium businesses handling sensitive agreements — service contracts, NDAs, onboarding paperwork — this is the kind of defensible record that matters if a dispute ever surfaces.

The legal validity of biometric eSignatures holds up under ESIGN and eIDAS frameworks, the same standards that cover conventional electronic signatures. You're not trading legal standing for convenience. You're getting both.

Who This Changes the Most

Face ID document signing and Touch ID document signing have an outsized impact on anyone who signs or receives documents repeatedly — not just occasionally.

Freelancers who sign a new client agreement every few weeks feel the difference by the second or third document. Agencies sending proposals and statements of work at volume see faster turnaround without chasing signatures. Small business owners who've been tolerating clun