# Microsoft Making Passkeys the Default for Microsoft Accounts and Phasing Out SMS Authentication

**URL:** https://discuss.privacyguides.net/t/microsoft-making-passkeys-the-default-for-microsoft-accounts-and-phasing-out-sms-authentication/39957
**Category:** News
**Created:** 2026-08-17T02:19:56Z
**Posts:** 9

## Post 1 by @fria — 2026-08-17T02:19:56Z

Microsoft [says](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/accounts-billing/manage/microsoft-to-stop-sending-sms-codes-for-personal-accounts) they'll soon stop sending SMS codes for authentication for personal Microsoft accounts and will transition to "passwordless accounts, passkeys, and verified email."

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This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at [https://www.privacyguides.org/news/2026/08/17/microsoft-making-passkeys-the-default-for-microsoft-accounts-and-phasing-out-sms-authentication/](https://www.privacyguides.org/news/2026/08/17/microsoft-making-passkeys-the-default-for-microsoft-accounts-and-phasing-out-sms-authentication/)

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## Post 2 by @Expert4870 — 2026-08-17T02:23:07Z

Will they still use SMS for light-KYC™ tho?

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## Post 3 by @not-wittingly — 2026-08-17T06:15:09Z

I assume this means the password and app based TOTP will also be phased out? Very annoying.

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## Post 4 by @fria — 2026-08-17T06:42:30Z

They only confirmed that SMS is going away.

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## Post 5 by @not-wittingly — 2026-08-17T09:27:49Z

> [@fria](#):
>
> “passwordless accounts, passkeys, and verified email.”

Yeah I am just wondering if they are moving towards these methods if they will just remove the password workflow entirely though. I feel this would be on brand for Microsoft.

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## Post 6 by @Aslop1 — 2026-08-17T13:49:42Z

I understand passkey is supposed to be better, but I could do without it. Healthequity, an HSA provider at my old job, did a rug pull and forced everyone in to using it through their app and it’s left a bad taste in my mouth ever since.

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## Post 7 by @fria — 2026-08-17T13:55:38Z

If you look at the [current state of passkey support on operating systems](https://passkeys.dev/device-support/), there’s still a lot of missing features on most of them, even on Windows. A lot of [password managers](https://passkeys.dev/docs/reference/known-issues/) also don’t properly support all the features of passkeys yet. So given that I doubt they’re going to fully remove passwords altogether yet.

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## Post 8 by @Gersand — 2026-08-17T16:08:06Z

I hated eggplants for decades. One day, I traveled to Eastern Mediterranean countries and discovered that I actually loved it. The reason was just that, in my family, nobody had ever known how to cook it right.

:wink:

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## Post 9 by @securitybrahh — 2026-08-18T05:28:30Z

Time to shift to resident keys on yubikey