Microsoft is officially rolling out Passkeys to users of Windows,Android, and iOS. The functionality, a replacement of traditional password,was first launched by Microsoft for Windows last year.

Passkeys have been readily adopted by companies like Apple, Google,and others with the purpose of making it easy to sign into Gmail, iCloud, andother services. With Microsoft’s Passkeys, you can sign into a Microsoftaccount on an app or website, without having to type out a password.

To sign in with a Microsoft Passkey using a device, you canchoose your personal authentication method like your face, fingerprint, PIN, ora security key. When you create your Passkey, two different keys are generated:one that is stored by the Microsoft website / app, and another being a privatekey that is stored on your device used for the authentication.

 

Passkeys work across multiple devices, which means that incase of having your device stolen or broken, you can have a backup to prevent losingyour Passkey.

Currently, support for Passkey is only available on Microsoft’swebsites on desktop and mobile browsers, and it will arrive on Microsoft’s appsin the coming weeks, as confirmed by the corporate vice president of Microsoftsecurity, Vasu Jakkal.

In the past, Microsoft has experimented with other authenticationmethods too in place of passwords. The company first launched Windows Helloauthentication with Windows 10 in 2015, using which you could sign in to a PCwith your face, fingerprint, or a PIN. Microsoft then launched support for FIDOsecurity keys in 2018. However, Passkey is Microsoft’s first password-less authenticationoption.