Yahoo email app seeks to eliminate passwords

Yahoo is looking to eliminate passwords with an update to its mobile application for its email service.

The updated app released yesterday for iPhones and Android devices will come with an option called ''Account Key'' that allows people to sign into their email accounts by pressing on a notification sent to their smartphones rather than entering a password.

Yahoo believes the new feature will offer greater security as most people rely on passwords that hackers are known to easily guess. However, if users prefer passwords then they can continue to type in a password.

Yahoo seeks to change the way internet security works because Yahoo ''is synonymous with the Internet in many countries,'' said Jeff Bonforte, the company's senior vice president of communication products, APP reported. ''We always feel a burden of consumer protection.''

Although Yahoo email has retained its position among users, it is losing out to Google's Gmail. Yahoo's counted 190 million email users in August, a 16 per cent fall from the same time last year, according to the research firm comScore. Gmail had 411 million, a 5 per cent increase.

With the updated app it will be possible to connect Yahoo email with competing services from Outlook.com, Hotmail and AOL. Yahoo is working on making the app work with Gmail at a later date.

The new authentication method, forms a component of a broader revamp that makes Yahoo Mail smarter and faster on smartphones, places Yahoo in the lead in email security but some longtime users accustomed to logging in with passwords will not be happy.

"It's pretty controversial to get rid of passwords because consumers actually like them," said Avivah Litan, a security analyst at research firm Gartner, mercurynews.com reported.

Though Yahoo's solution is meant to be simpler than the typical two-factor authentication process, which is safer than conventional passwords, it has a learning curve.

According to commentators, it takes time to learn the new process takes little effort, but requires users to have an internet-connected phone or wristwatch handy, even if they are on a desktop.

"It takes getting used to," said Jeff Bonforte, Yahoo's head of communications products, in a press event Wednesday in downtown San Francisco. "Patterns die hard.''

Yahoo also uses other tools such as network analytics -- what it knows of a user's typical behaviour -- to keep a user logged in unless unusual activity raises a red flag.
 
"Everyone will wait and see how it goes," Litan said. "If this goes well, I think a lot of other companies will follow because passwords are so antiquated and create a false sense of security."