Google Authenticator gets Google Account support: What that means for you
Google has rolled out an important update to Google Authenticator, one that will make it easier for users to log into their apps and services using two-factor authentication even if they change their phones.
The company has announced that it has rolled out an update to Google Authenticator’s Android and iOS apps that brings the ability to sync the backup one-time codes or OTPs with the user’s Google Accounts. This means that users of the company’s Google Authenticator app will be able to sign into the apps and services using the backup codes from the app even if they no longer have the access to the primary device that they were using to access the authenticator app. The Google Authenticator app will sync with users’ Google Accounts, which in turn will save the backup security codes on the cloud for users to access later.
While Google is still pushing towards a password-less future in the form of passkeys, the company acknowledges that authentication codes remain an important and most frequently used part of internet security today.
“One major piece of feedback we’ve heard from users over the years was the complexity in dealing with lost or stolen devices that had Google Authenticator installed. Since one-time codes in Authenticator were only stored on a single device, a loss of that device meant that users lost their ability to sign into any service on which they’d set up 2FA using Authenticator,” Google wrote in a blog post.
“With this update we’re rolling out a solution to this problem, making one-time codes more durable by storing them safely in users’ Google Account,” the company added.
It is worth noting that cloud-syncing isn’t exactly a new concept. Other authenticator apps such as Microsoft Authenticator and Authy have been using cloud-syncing for providing authentication codes for a long time now. However, it’s only how that Google Authenticator, which was released back in 2010, has decided to roll out the much-awaited feature to its users.
As far as availability is concerned, Google says that both Android and iOS users can get access to cloud-sync feature by downloading the latest version of the Google Authenticator app on their smartphones.
The post Google Authenticator gets Google Account support: What that means for you appeared first on Techlusive.
Google has rolled out an important update to Google Authenticator, one that will make it easier for users to log into their apps and services using two-factor authentication even if they change their phones.
The company has announced that it has rolled out an update to Google Authenticator’s Android and iOS apps that brings the ability to sync the backup one-time codes or OTPs with the user’s Google Accounts. This means that users of the company’s Google Authenticator app will be able to sign into the apps and services using the backup codes from the app even if they no longer have the access to the primary device that they were using to access the authenticator app. The Google Authenticator app will sync with users’ Google Accounts, which in turn will save the backup security codes on the cloud for users to access later.
While Google is still pushing towards a password-less future in the form of passkeys, the company acknowledges that authentication codes remain an important and most frequently used part of internet security today.
“One major piece of feedback we’ve heard from users over the years was the complexity in dealing with lost or stolen devices that had Google Authenticator installed. Since one-time codes in Authenticator were only stored on a single device, a loss of that device meant that users lost their ability to sign into any service on which they’d set up 2FA using Authenticator,” Google wrote in a blog post.
“With this update we’re rolling out a solution to this problem, making one-time codes more durable by storing them safely in users’ Google Account,” the company added.
It is worth noting that cloud-syncing isn’t exactly a new concept. Other authenticator apps such as Microsoft Authenticator and Authy have been using cloud-syncing for providing authentication codes for a long time now. However, it’s only how that Google Authenticator, which was released back in 2010, has decided to roll out the much-awaited feature to its users.
As far as availability is concerned, Google says that both Android and iOS users can get access to cloud-sync feature by downloading the latest version of the Google Authenticator app on their smartphones.
The post Google Authenticator gets Google Account support: What that means for you appeared first on Techlusive.
