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For most of this year, Microsoft has been warning users that they will no longer be able to use its Authenticator mobile application for user ID and password management. As reported by CNET on July 29, 2025, "In June, the company stopped letting users add passwords to Authenticator…. And starting Aug. 1, you'll no longer be able to use saved passwords."
Also: How passkeys work: The complete guide to your inevitable passwordless future
To me, the dire warnings of this pending doomsday-like deadline are reminiscent of the run-up to January 1, 2000 -- the so-called "Y2K problem" -- when it was anticipated that computers everywhere would experience a meltdown because their programmers never considered the possibility that their software would still be in use in the 21st century.
The great passkey migration
But most of this reporting overlooks the bigger shift that's underway across Microsoft's identity management portfolio and, in many cases, is missing key details about the future roles of Microsoft Authenticator and the Microsoft Edge browser when it comes to another colossal shift that's currently in progress: the world's transition from passwords to passkey.
A passkey is unequivocally a safer credential than a password when it comes to logging into websites and apps. Passkeys cannot be guessed, the same passkey cannot be reused across different websites and apps, and you cannot be tricked into divulging your passkeys to malicious actors through techniques such as phishing, smishing, squishing, and malvertising. Even if you're strengthening user IDs and passwords with additional factors of authentication, passkeys are a better and more secure alternative.
Also: I replaced my Microsoft account password with a passkey - and you should, too
In fact, of the major technology vendors that are encouraging end-users to switch to passkeys, no vendor is pushing users to transition as hard as Microsoft is. But, at the same time that Microsoft is aggressively campaigning for that transition, we are still waiting for Microsoft to offer the comprehensive credential management capabilities that are necessary to support that future.
Managing passwords after Authenticator
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