Apple, Google and Microsoft roll out pass-through authentication without a password

Apple, Google and Microsoft are stepping up their efforts to rid us of passwords. New and improved features should appear before the end of the year.

Passwordless authentication has long been a reality, but it’s clear that sometimes the experience is pretty shaky. Today, the three biggest tech giants seem confident they can reduce that friction. Apple, Google and Microsoft have decided to work together to expand support for the passwordless authentication standard from the FIDO Alliance and the World Wide Web Consortium.

Apple, Google and Microsoft step up their efforts to rid us of passwords

This will allow you to use FIDO authentication on your smartphone or tablet to sign in to an app or site on a nearby device, regardless of platform. Similarly, you will often have automatic access to your FIDO credentials without having to add every account on a given device, even on a brand new computer.

New and improved features should appear before the end of the year.

The goal here is to enable pass-through passwordless authentication for apps and websites, not just at certain stages. All you need now is a biometric scan of your face or fingerprint or a PIN on your device to log you in every step of the way. This initiative should no doubt prevent many phishing attacks that try to trick you into recovering your passwords.

Apple, Google, and Microsoft plan to roll out these advanced passwordless features to their platforms before the end of the year. On the other hand, you will certainly have to wait before updates of various operating systems introduce these features. But you probably only have a few months left. Passwords have been in our lives for so long. We will be truly liberated when they are no more. A little more (much?) patience.