Google Services Going Passwordless on Android

Google is making logging into its own online services much easier on Android. The company is finally making it so users will be able to use their device’s hardware features to login onto their personal accounts on Google services.

Starting with Pixel devices, the new feature will allow you to login to something like Gmail on the web, or other Google services like YouTube online using your phone’s fingerprint scanner or screen lock. That will remove the need for you to enter your account’s password manually, saving a lot of your time, especially if you are bad at remembering passwords.

The feature will continue to work for those who have two-factor authentication enabled on their account, by the way.

Google says the feature will be rolled out to all Android devices running Android 7 and newer over the coming days. It’s built using the usual FIDO2 authentication standards, and it’s something we have seen other companies like Microsoft and Apple use in the past.

The feature only seems to be enabled for passwords.google.com at the time, but Google says the company will be expanding support to other Google and Google Cloud services soon. Passwordless authentication systems have started becoming popular lately, and Google’s the latest to join the party. It’s probably only a matter of time till these systems start working different devices, regardless of if you have an iPhone, an Android, or Windows 10. One can only dream.