Microsoft Is Trying To Kill Passwords With This New Feature

You may soon be able to use your smartphone to sign into your Microsoft accounts. The company has recently launched 'phone sign-ins' to help users to sign in using their user ID by simply authenticate the password using their smartphone.

This feature is similar to Google's sign-in prompt and uses a mobile app called Microsoft Authenticator. Which is available for Android, iOS and Windows Phone store to confirm the identity. Inside the app, user can enable or disable 'phone sign-in' to set up the account.

The company has prioritized the Android and iOS for now. Few peoples have asked, if this works with Windows Phone version. But, Windows Phone makes up <5% of the active users of our Authenticator Apps. So, they have prioritized getting this working with Android and iOS now. Alex Simons, Director of PM, Microsoft Identity Division, posted in a blog that, "If/When it becomes a big success on those high scale platforms, we will evaluate adding support for Windows Phone".

While logging in, once the user puts his/her user ID, they get a prompt on their connected handset (if they  have installed Microsoft Authenticator in their smartphone) to approve the log-in attempt. Once approved, the user gets automatically sign-in without having to type their password. But, the user will have to enter his/her user ID.

Simons also said, "This process is easier than standard two-step verification and significantly more secure than only a password, which can be forgotten, phished, or compromised". It has also been mentioned that users can choose to put in the password if in case the Authenticator Installed phone is not around.

On a related note, Microsoft has started rolling out its Outlook Groups feature to Mac, iOS and Android. The application makes it easier to collaborate between groups inside the Outlook mailing service. Users can view their group lists, read and reply to group conversations, view unread messages sent to groups and more.

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