Here is another reason why you should use a trustworthy multifactor authenticator like Ente Auth or Aegis (and keep it seperate from your password manager).
Starting June 2025, Microsoft will start the process of removing Microsoft Authenticator’s password manager feature to promote its users to use Edge browser. If they want to keep their passwords and autofill functionality, they should rely on the built-in features in Edge.
The app itself will continue to work as normal; it just can’t become a password manager anymore. Instead, Microsoft wants its users to sync their passwords with the Microsoft account.
Microsoft argues that this is for the better, as it is streamlining the process of saving passwords and providing autofill functionality. You may ask yourself how that is possible. According to Microsoft, it is simple: all existing passwords get synced with the Microsoft account, and users may then access them when they use Microsoft Edge.
I am more concerned about the intent behind these changes. With Chrome facing a possible sale, Microsoft are considering ways to promote Edge as an alternative. Hopefully, any impacted users will switch to a better alternative like BitWarden or Keepass.
With all the existing solutions and a minimum of respect for privacy, I don’t understand why some people use Microsoft Authentificator, too bad for them.
MS Authenticator is the WORST 2FA app I’ve ever used. I think for users who are using MS Authenticator, they’ll more likely to use Edge than to switch 2FA because it’s easier. This change would lock users to Edge if anything.
I can’t understand why would anyone use the browser password manager over a third-party app in the first place.
Even if they use Microsoft Edge for both desktop and mobile, this just seems like an annoying ecosystem lock if anything. Autofill won’t work at all on mobile, especially for downloaded apps outside the browser.
I can understand it, but I don’t endorse it. They use the browser password manager because they get prompted to save their passwords and click yes, making it convenient. A shocking number of people spend zero effort selecting software or customizing it. There are still people who have MSN or Bing as their homepage simply due to defaults.
I think MS also knows that they are a trusted name in business software, so people who have IT-managed corporate security policies with 2FA will often have inferior 2FA apps just because they can be deployed corporately and supported with Microsoft. So this move would take people forced to use MS Authenticator for work and force them to use Edge.