With Google's New Password-Free Sign In Feature, It's Easier Than Ever for Users to Log In

Today passwords are essential to online safety, but threats like phishing, scams, and poor password hygiene continue to pose a risk to users.

Google has long recognized these issues, which is why they have created defenses like 2-Step Verification and Google Password Manager.

However, to really address password problems, we need to move beyond passwords altogether, which is why Google has been setting the stage for a passwordless future for over a decade.

In honor of World Password Day, Google is announcing a major milestone in this journey: They plan to implement passwordless support for FIDO Sign-in standards in Android & Chrome.

Apple and Microsoft have also announced that they will offer support for their platforms.

This will simplify sign-ins across devices, websites, and applications no matter the platform — without the need for a single password.

These capabilities will be available over the course of the coming year.

How will a passwordless future work?

When a user signs into a website or app on their phone, they will simply unlock the phone — their account won’t need a password anymore.

Instead, their phone will store a FIDO credential called a passkey which is used to unlock their online account.

The passkey makes signing in far more secure, as it’s based on public key cryptography and is only shown to their online account when they unlock their phone.

To sign into a website on their computer, they just need their phone nearby and they will simply be prompted to unlock it for access.

Once they’ve done this, the system won’t need their phone again and the user can sign in by just unlocking their computer.

Even if someone loses their phone, their passkeys will securely sync to their new phone from cloud backup, allowing user to pick up right where their old device left off.

Paving the way to passwordless

The passkey will bring us much closer to the passwordless future we’ve been mapping out for over a decade.

Google is excited for what the passkey future holds.

That said, the company understands it will still take time for this technology to be available on everyone’s devices and for website and app developers to take advantage of them.

Passwords will continue to be part of our lives as we make this transition, so they will remain dedicated to making conventional sign-ins safer and easier through their existing products like Google Password Manager.

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