Apple, Google, and Microsoft plan to expand support for passwordless sign-in across websites and apps

Apple, Google, and Microsoft today announced plans to expand support for a common passwordless sign-in standard created by the FIDO Alliance and the W3C to allow websites and apps to offer consistent, secure, and easy passwordless sign-ins to consumers across devices and platforms.

Through the expanded standards-based capabilities, which will give websites and apps the ability to offer an end-to-end passwordless option, users will sign in 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 new approach protects against phishing and sign-in will be radically more secure when compared to passwords and legacy multi-factor technologies such as one-time passcodes sent over SMS,” Apple said in a blog post. 

Apple, Google, and Microsoft already support the FIDO Alliance standards on their platforms, but the expanded support will provide users with two new features for smoother and more secure password-free login as stated in the announcement:

1- Allow users to automatically access their FIDO sign-in credentials (referred to by some as a “passkey”) on many of their devices, even new ones, without having to reenroll every account.

2- Enable users to use FIDO authentication on their mobile device to sign in to an app or website on a nearby device, regardless of the OS platform or browser they are running.

The new features are expected to be available on Apple, Google and Microsoft platforms over the next year.