Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint are now working together to develop a more secure solution for two-factor authentication.

The companies seem to be looking for a way to replace traditional text messages as the method for verifying whether someone is trying to log in to an online account. What they’ll replace it with is unclear, but the companies’ announcement seems to say they’ll have a solution ready sometime next year.

Two-factor authentication (sometimes called two-step verification, or something similar) is a security option that’s been offered by more and more websites over the past few years. It usually involves a website texting users a unique code every time they want to log in, requiring that person to have both their regular…

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