To address the challenge of managing authentication tokens and access keys for third-party services, Netlify has introduced API Authentication as a beta release on Netlify Labs. This feature simplifies the process of setting up proper access scopes for third-party services and allows developers to manage them in a central location. With API Authentication, developers can easily connect to popular services such as Stripe, Spotify, GitHub, Salesforce, and others without writing authentication code. The feature is now available on Netlify Labs and enables developers to authenticate with supported services by selecting relevant scopes and clicking the "Connect" button. Once authenticated, developers can access tokens in embedded environment variables for use in site builds or Netlify Functions.