Microsoft’s vision of a password-free future is steadily advancing, driven by its efforts to popularize passkeys. Yet, the company has chosen not to reveal exactly how many users have embraced the technology, relying instead on percentage-based success metrics to demonstrate its progress.
The software giant credits its adoption strategy to persistent “nudges” integrated into its user interface, which encourages passkey enrolment without allowing users to permanently opt out.
According to Microsoft, this approach has led to a 10% decline in password use and a staggering 987% increase in passkey adoption, though the company declined to provide specific user numbers.
Introduced to consumer accounts in May, passkeys represent a significant shift in user authentication. They leverage public key cryptography, with a private key stored securely on a user’s device and a corresponding public key stored on the server. This eliminates the need for password entry, streamlines the login process, and minimizes the risks associated with password theft and reuse attacks.
Passkeys also align with a broader industry trend. Apple, Google, and Microsoft have all integrated the technology into their platforms, following the development of the FIDO2 Project and the WebAuthn standard. Microsoft’s insistence on passkey adoption mirrors the persistent calls from the Fast Identity Online Alliance (FIDO) for a world without passwords—a goal echoed by Bill Gates nearly two decades ago.
Despite its advantages, passkey adoption isn’t without challenges. Compromised devices, social engineering attacks, and cross-platform portability issues remain hurdles to address. Nevertheless, the FIDO Alliance reports significant growth, citing over 800 million Google accounts using passkeys and Amazon’s recent milestone of 175 million passkey-enabled accounts.
While Microsoft projects reaching a billion passkey users eventually, its exact progress remains undisclosed. As more persistent enrolment nudges make their way to users, it seems the death of passwords may indeed become a reality—one nudge at a time.
