Microsoft introduces Passkey support for all consumer accounts

Microsoft

Microsoft is rolling out passkey support for all consumer accounts. After enabling this feature in Windows 11 last year, Microsoft has now allowed passkeys across Windows, Android, and iOS. This makes it effortless to sign in to a Microsoft account without having to manually type your password in every time.

Microsoft’s official blog post stated, “Your passkey gives you quick and easy access to the Microsoft services you use every day, and it will do a much better job than your password of protecting your account from malicious attacks.”

The Microsoft account users can now use the face, fingerprint, PIN, or a security key on their devices as Passkeys to log in to their accounts. This is one of the major security features that will give users more control over their accounts amid growing user data breach issues worldwide.

Neither your biometric information nor your PIN ever leaves your device and they never get shared with the site or service you’re signing in to. “Passkeys can also sync between your devices, so if you lose or upgrade your device, your passkeys will be ready and waiting for you when you set up your new one,” noted Microsoft.

Vasu Jakkal, corporate vice president of Microsoft security, compliance, and identity also added "You can use a passkey to sign in to Microsoft apps and websites, including Microsoft 365 and Copilot on desktop and mobile browsers. In the upcoming weeks, support for utilising your passkey to log into mobile versions of Microsoft applications will be added."

However, every device with your specific Microsoft account will have two parts, with one part stored on the app or website where you are logging in and one on your device. Previously Google also introduced Passkeys in 2022, and it’s been currently used on more than 400 million accounts, according to the Verge.