Passwords suck. Blogging site Medium knows this. So it's not dealing with them anymore.
Until now, you could only sign into Medium using Twitter or Facebook. Going forward, however, users will be able to sign in using just an email address — no password necessary.
"Authentication is serious business," Medium's Jamie Talbot wrote in a blog post Monday. "We wanted to make our sign-in process as secure and simple to use as possible, across all platforms."
"Passwords are neither secure nor simple," he added. "They're hard to remember or easy to guess, everyone re-uses them (even though they know they shouldn't), and they're a pain to type on mobile. They don't even keep you that safe."
So, the company devised a new system which it says is not only easier but also more secure. Now, when you go to sign up for Medium you'll have three options — sign in with Twitter, Facebook, or your email address.
If you select the new email option, all you'll need to do is enter your email address and the company will send you a message with a link to sign in. From there, head over to your inbox and find the message from Medium, and click to confirm that you want to sign in. The sign-in link expires in 15 minutes and can only be used once.
"It sounds counterintuitive, but this is actually more secure than a password-based system," Talbot wrote. "On most services, if someone guesses or cracks your password, they gain access to your account until you change your password, which might not be for a long time. You might never know that they have access."
With Medium's new system, you're automatically notified when someone tries to sign in using your email.
This new password-free method isn't replacing Facebook and Twitter authentication — you'll still be able to sign in with those services if you prefer. If you've already created an account using Facebook or Twitter, you'll also now be able to sign in using the email address on your account.
Meanwhile, Medium isn't the only one looking to do away with passwords. Researchers at Binghamton University recently announced they have developed a way to verify a person's identity based on how their brain responds to certain words. The researchers say their findings suggest that a person's unique "brainprint" could be used by security systems in the future for authentication.