Apple and Google also pledged to use the FIDO Alliance’s standard for biometric or PIN logins as opposed to passwords.

A key part of the “passwordless by default” initiative Microsoft announced on Thursday is encouraging the use of passkeys—the new alternative to passwords that Microsoft, Google, Apple, and a large roster of other companies are developing under the coordination of the FIDO Alliance.

" [Users] signing in with passkeys are three times more successful at getting into their account than password users (about 98% versus 32%)," the blog post reads. "When you use a passkey, you get into your account much quicker too! Passkey sign-ins are eight times faster than a password and multifactor authentication."