We all use too many passwords on different websites and services. The password is required for every app or service. Not to mention the password criteria, which can be really frustrating. Some require an upper case letter, some a special character, and others a number — you get the idea. However, it appears like Apple, Google, and Microsoft are planning to collaborate on a passwordless sign-in solution.

Apple announced in a press release that the three firms are working together to improve support for the FIDO Alliance and the World Wide Web Consortium‘s (W3C) passwordless sign-ins standard. The new feature will enable websites and apps to provide consumers with consistent, safe, and easy passwordless sign-ins across devices and platforms.

Hundreds of technology companies and service providers from around the world are working with the FIDO Alliance and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to build passwordless sign-in standards. Apple, Google, and Microsoft have been at the forefront of developing this extended range of capabilities, and are now adding support to their own platforms.

On billions of industry-leading devices, Apple, Google, and Microsoft platforms already support FIDO Alliance standards to enable passwordless sign-in. Users had to login into each website or app with each device before they could use the passwordless feature. Users will now have access to two additional features that will make passwordless sign-ins more easy and secure:

1. Allow users to automatically access their FIDO sign-in credentials (referred to by some as a “passkey”) on many of their devices, even new ones, without having to re-enroll every account.
2. Enable users to use FIDO authentication on their mobile device to sign in to an app or website on a nearby device, regardless of the OS platform or browser they are running.

Over the course of the year, these new features are planned to roll out across Apple, Google, and Microsoft platforms.

According to Apple, the new way will protect against phishing and will make sign-in more secure than passwords and historical multi-factor technologies like one-time passcodes delivered via SMS.

“Just as we design our products to be intuitive and capable, we also design them to be private and secure,” said Kurt Knight, Apple’s Senior Director of Platform Product Marketing. “Working with the industry to establish new, more secure sign-in methods that offer better protection and eliminate the vulnerabilities of passwords is central to our commitment to building products that offer maximum security and a transparent user experience — all with the goal of keeping users’ personal information safe.”

“The complete shift to a passwordless world will begin with consumers making it a natural part of their lives. Any viable solution must be safer, easier, and faster than the passwords and legacy multi-factor authentication methods used today,” said Alex Simons, Corporate Vice President, Identity Program Management at Microsoft.

Mark Risher, Senior Director of Product Management, Google said, “For Google, it represents nearly a decade of work we’ve done alongside FIDO, as part of our continued innovation towards a passwordless future. We look forward to making FIDO-based technology available across Chrome, ChromeOS, Android and other platforms, and encourage app and website developers to adopt it, so people around the world can safely move away from the risk and hassle of passwords.”