Entra ID - Retirement of SMS and voice authentication
The beginning of the “forced” rollout to remove SMS and voice authentication from Entra ID is pencilled in for the 1st of February 2027 - this is when users will be required to setup passkeys to authenticate. However, from 1st of September 2026; which is really soon 😊, the passkeys will be automatically enabled for users currently enabled for SMS or voice.
So what will be their replacement? Passkeys! I for one am really happy about that, whatever we can do to make authentication more secure and user-friendly is a good thing 🤣
Apparently Microsoft has started emailing people about it as per:
Microsoft’s official blog post
Retirement of SMS and voice authentication methods in Microsoft Entra ID
Retirement timeline
Passkeys by default and retirement of Microsoft-provided SMS and voice authentication
The table below is from the above link, and may not be 100% accurate when you are reading this.
Check the link for the most up to date information 😊
| Date | Milestone | What you should do |
|---|---|---|
| September 1, 2026 | Tenants with users enabled for SMS or voice, those users are auto-enabled and nudged for Passkey registration upon MFA sign-in. | Notify end users of the changes happening. Use the passkey deployment guide to prepare your environment for passkey use. |
| February 1, 2027 | Microsoft provided SMS and Voice fully retired in Microsoft Entra ID | Make sure every user is on a phishing-resistant method (passkeys, Windows Hello, or FIDO2) before this date, or users may experience sign in disturbances. |
| After February 1, 2027 | Users whose only available MFA method is SMS or voice will be required to register a passkey during sign-in to continue accessing their account. This prompt will be blocking. Users must register a passkey before they can continue to sign in to their account. There is no opt out from this February 1 behavior. It will be enforced for all tenants. | Migrate users to a phishing-resistant method or choose a telecom provider to continue using SMS or voice. |