Apple, Google, and Microsoft announce plans to adopt features from the FIDO Alliance, which is working on passwordless tech for websites and apps
Ian Sherr — Ian Sherr (he/him/his) grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, so he's always had a connection to the tech world.
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple’s move follows its 2020 entry into the FIDO Alliance and its later passkey demonstration using Face ID or Touch ID. The significance is that Apple, Google, and Microsoft are now aligning their planned website and app features around the same alliance effort rather than advancing passwordless sign-in separately.
Related coverage frames FIDO’s goal as credentials that can move more easily between devices. The three platform companies’ joint adoption plan gives that interoperability objective a much broader implementation base.
First-order effects
- Apple, Google, and Microsoft are committing their website and app ecosystems to FIDO Alliance passwordless features, making device-based sign-in a planned option across their platforms.
- The FIDO Alliance gains backing from the three companies that had already been advocating passwordless authentication, strengthening its role as the shared implementation framework.
Second-order effects
- Website and app operators seeking consistent sign-in across Apple, Google, and Microsoft environments gain a common FIDO-based target rather than having to treat each platform’s approach as wholly separate.
- Authentication providers and device makers face greater pressure to support interoperable FIDO credentials as the major platform owners converge on the standard.
Third-order effects
- If the planned features are deployed consistently, account access shifts from passwords toward portable device credentials, moving competition from password entry toward the quality of identity and device ecosystems.
- The pattern makes open authentication standards a strategic layer of platform infrastructure: interoperability can broaden adoption while preserving the platforms’ importance in managing users’ devices and credentials.
The trend: Major consumer platforms are converging on interoperable passkeys to replace passwords with device-mediated identity.