To mark World Password Day, Apple has announced a partnership with Google and Microsoft to get rid of them. According to joint press releases, the three companies are working on new capabilities for that would “expand support for a common passwordless sign-in standard” across website and apps using your iPhone.
Apple hails the partnership as “radically more secure when compared to passwords and legacy multi-factor technologies such as one-time passcodes sent over SMS” and focuses on two main components:
- 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.
- 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.
Here’s how it’ll work. The new passwordless process will let you choose an iPhone as a method of authentication by storing a FIDO passkey on the device. Then when you sign into the app or service on any device, your iPhone will receive a prompt to use Face ID, Touch ID, or a passcode to allow access. It’s similar to the way Apple uses trusted devices as two-factor authenticators when logging into iCloud accounts and Apple services.
Apple doesn’t give a release for the new capabilities but says they are “expected to become available across Apple, Google, and Microsoft platforms over the course of the coming year.”