San Francisco, October 15

Yahoo is trying to phase out passwords with an update to its mobile application for its e-mail service.

The renovated app released today for iPhones and Android devices will include an option called ‘Account Key’ that allows people to sign into their e-mail accounts by pressing on a notification sent to their smartphones instead of typing in a password.

Yahoo believes the new feature will be more secure because most people rely on passwords that are easy for hackers to guess. Yahoo’s e-mail users can still continue to type in a password if they prefer.

Although Yahoo e-mail remains among the world’s most popular, it has been eclipsed in recent years by Google’s Gmail. Yahoo’s e-mail had 190 million users in August, a 16 per cent decline from the same time last year.