Apple, Google, and Microsoft are all expanding passwordless sign-in options

In celebration of World Password Day, Apple, Google, and Microsoft have surprisingly joined forces in support of passwordless sign-in options.

In a quest to stop users from falling victim to data breaches and account takeovers, Apple, Google, and Microsoft have released a joint statement announcing plans to expand support for a passwordless sign-in standard created by the FIDO Alliance and the World Wide Web Consortium.

According to the FIDO Alliance the standard passwords that we’re all used to using come with an inherent flaw of being cumbersome, leading consumers to compromise their security and reuse their passwords across devices and websites if they don’t have a password manager or all of their passwords written down. 

Thankfully, the newly proposed passwordless sign-in standard wouldn’t come with this inherent flaw, as instead, users will be able to sign in to apps and websites “through the same action that they take multiple times each day to unlock their devices, such as a simple verification of their fingerprint or face, or a device PIN.”

This means that rather than laboriously typing out your password each time you need to sign into a website, all you would need to do is reach down to your phone, unlock it, and verify your identity within the FIDO’s authentication app, with that process immediately signing you into the website or app you’re trying to access.

The FIDO Alliance states that this new approach will be “radically more secure” compared to traditional passwords, so it’s no surprise that three of the world’s biggest tech companies have been leading the charge to implement this technology. 

Having Apple, Google, and Microsoft all coming together for this new passwordless standard is also vital to its success, as to see widespread adoption users will have to be able to feasibly do away with passwords across all apps and devices, otherwise this potential new standard will be more trouble than it’s worth.

Thanks to combined support from Apple, Google, and Microsoft, new passwordless sign-in options are expected to be available across “billions of devices” over the course of the coming year.