Microsoft announces passwordless authentication in Azure and updates to Teams and Outlook

Announcements made at Ignite 2021 event

Microsoft announced on Tuesday that passwordless authentication in Azure Active Directory has entered general availability.

The service will enable employees to replace their passwords with biometric logins using Windows Hello for Business, authentication apps, and compatible FIDO2 based security keys from partners of the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association (MISA), like Feitian, Yubico, Authen Trend and others.

"Last year was a breakthrough year, and the start of the movement to passwordless sign in. Today we're announcing our passwordless solution is now generally available!" Alex Simons, Microsoft's corporate VP of program management, wrote in a blog post.

"Now organisations can rollout passwordless authentication across their hybrid environments at scale. Users get a familiar, simple to use authentication experience that offers industry best security and works across an increasingly broad set of devices and services," he added.

Microsoft launched public preview of passwordless authentication feature in July 2019, and based on the feedback received, the company has added a variety of new features, including password APIs, step-up authentication and authentication methods management, to improve the usability and management of credentials.

Simons said that the management of credentials has now been merged in the Microsoft Authenticator app to enable admins to create one policy for both standard multi-factor authentication and passwordless authentication.

According to Microsoft, about 200 million people have already started using passwordless login for Microsoft services, such as Xbox Live, and Outlook. That's nearly 33 per cent up from the 150 million people who were using passwordless login in May 2019.

Many of those users still use passwords as a login fallback, according to Joy Chik, corporate vice president for the Identity Division at Microsoft, but starting the spring, the company will let user remove their passwords and go completely passwordless.

At its virtual Ignite 2021 conference on Tuesday, Microsoft also announced a public preview for Temporary Access Pass - a time-limited passcode that allows users to set up security keys and recover passwordless credentials.

The company also announced various new capabilities for its Teams collaboration platform and other Microsoft 365 services.

With the general availability of PowerPoint Live in Teams, presenters can now see slides, meeting chat, notes, and participants all in a single view.

Teams webinars will now be available as part of Dynamics 365 Marketing campaigns.

"As the world recovers, there's no going back," CEO Satya Nadella said in his Ignite keynote.

"Employee expectations are changing and flexibility will be key. And that's why we're building Microsoft Teams as an organising layer for all the ways we work - the modes of communication, collaboration and the ability to extend it with other apps and services."

On Tuesday, Microsoft also announced a couple of new features for Outlook, which will make it easier for the users to manage their calendars and schedule tasks.

With the calendar board view in Outlook on the web, users can now better organise and manage their calendars, files, reminders and to-do lists.