Use Microsoft Authenticator for easy, secure sign-ins for all your online accounts using multi-factor authentication, passwordless, or password autofill. You also have additional account management options for your Microsoft personal, work or school accounts.
Getting started with multi-factor authentication
Multi factor authentication (MFA) or two factor authentication (2FA) provides a second layer of security. When logging in with multi-factor authentication, you’ll enter your password, and then you’ll be asked for an additional way to prove it’s really you. Either approve the notification sent to the Microsoft Authenticator, or enter the one-time password (OTP) generated by the app. The one-time passwords (OTP codes) have a 30 second timer counting down. This timer is so you never have to use the same time-based one-time password (TOTP) twice and you don’t have to remember the number. The one-time password (OTP) doesn’t require you to be connected to a network, and it won’t drain your battery. You can add multiple accounts to your app, including non-Microsoft accounts like Facebook, Amazon, Dropbox, Google, LinkedIn, GitHub, and more.
Getting started with passwordless
Use your phone, not your password, to log into your Microsoft account. Just enter your username, then approve the notification sent to your phone. Your fingerprint, face ID, or PIN will provide a second layer of security in this two-step verification process. After you’ve signed in with two factor authentication (2FA), you’ll have access to all your Microsoft products and services, such as Outlook, OneDrive, Office, and more.
Getting started with autofill
Microsoft Authenticator app can also autofill passwords for you. Sign-in on the Passwords tab inside the Authenticator app with your personal Microsoft account to start syncing passwords, including the passwords saved in Microsoft Edge. Make Microsoft Authenticator the default autofill provider and start autofilling passwords on apps and sites you visit on your mobile. Your passwords are protected with multi-factor authentication in the app. You will need to prove yourself with your fingerprint, face ID, or PIN to access and autofill passwords on your mobile. You can also import passwords from Google Chrome and other password managers.
Microsoft personal, work or school accounts
Sometimes your work or school might ask you to install the Microsoft Authenticator when accessing certain files, emails, or apps. You will need to register your device to your organization through the app and add your work or school account. Microsoft Authenticator also supports cert-based authentication by issuing a certificate on your device. This will let your organization know that the sign-in request is coming from a trusted device and help you seamlessly and securely access additional Microsoft apps and services without needing to log into each. Because Microsoft Authenticator supports single sign-on, once you have proven your identity once, you will not need to log in again to other Microsoft apps on your device.
Optional Access permissions:
Microsoft Authenticator includes the following optional access permissions. All these require user consent. If you choose to not grant these optional access permissions, you can still use Microsoft Authenticator for other services that do not require such permission. For more information see https://aka.ms/authappfaq
Accessibility Service: Used to optionally support Autofill on more apps and sites.
Location: Sometimes your organization wants to know your location before allowing you to access certain resources. The app will request this permission only if your organization has a policy requiring location.
Camera: Used to scan QR codes when you add a work, school, or non-Microsoft account.
Read the contents of your storage: This permission is only used when you report a technical problem through the app settings. Some information from your storage is collected to diagnose the issue.
With so many people taking the dishonest route almost everywhere we turn around, it is safe to say all havoc is breaking loose in the world. It is great to see that Microsoft is aware of what is going on and has taken steps to find and implement resolution, one of those steps being ‘passwordless login’. As far as security is concerned, this method is easier and by far the way to go! If you are serious about your security, install this.
Error communicating with server. I get this error message whenever I try to use the two digit passcode to sign in. I have the new android fold4. The app doesn’t complete one of its basic functions for me. I’ve tried uninstalling and re-installing. I’m not sure how I was able to sign in eventually, but I did. I’m still able to use the app, but I’m also afraid of being locked out of my account one day. Living life on the edge, I guess.
Upside: Saved my identity, data, and money on more than one occasion. Downside: A bit of a learning curve needed when first setting up; especially when fighting off competing authentication apps such as Google and Samsung. Also one irritating feature of this app is that no matter what it will insist upon generating a password for some apps that already have one.
It hasn’t let me down yet. Just remember to save your Microsoft password associated with the Authenticator separate and safe, as well as keeping your phone number updated with your Microsoft account. Good service. Highly recommend if you’re looking for a security authenticator as well as a password keeper and private information holder. Works well in almost all applications as an auto fill provider. Best of all, no ads. 10/10.
Definitely one of the better 2-Step Authentication apps. It has a few flaws, but nothing major that would cause me to question if it’s vulnerable to security issues. The biggest problem I’ve encountered is that a couple of times the app wasn’t sending me a notification to approve a sign on into a new device, but I very possibly could have been doing something incorrectly on my end. I’ve always highly recommended Microsoft Authenticator, and I will continue to do so.
It’s a bit tricky to get to work but once you do it saves my all passwords perfectly. Basically you have to let it generate a random password and then go edit that password to the one you normally want to use. It would be easier if they just would allow you to search for the app without having to type the URL login exactly in.
I love this app! It completely simplifies the forgotten password problem. Soooo much easier than having to request new passwords everytime you can’t remember it. People say you shouldn’t do that but, let’s face it, our passwords are not safe on our computers. Anything can be hacked, and using the same ones over again is just as careless. This way I don’t even have to type it in. You don’t even have to create passwords or pins, the app does it, and the passwords are much stronger than mine. A+
I like the app for the most part. It is very handy when it comes to logging in to Microsoft and all. The app occasionally will not give me the notifications, and I have encountered an error saying a page has blocked the app from viewing it due to not accepting unsecured clear text traffic, which is kinda sketchy. All in all though, Not the best authenticator app but blows Google Authenticator out of the water.
It’s really easy to use and in-sync with the Outlook on PC. A notification will appear when there is a sign-in attempt. If you receive a notification and it’s not you trying to log in, the culprit cannot access with the right code. A better way of security, in my opinion, because the code changes with every sign in.
Unlike Google Authenticator where the company is ignoring the MASSIVE LAG issues, this app is perfect and doesn’t lag at all. Get this one, you’ll thank me later. The backup to cloud where anyone can access the data, and no import option is an issue. If I’m wrong about the latter, please let me know.
🤩 Microsoft Authenticator is the perfect app for anyone looking for an easy and secure sign-in for all their online accounts. It has a great multi-factor authentication system, as well as passwordless and password autofill features. Plus, it has awesome account management options for personal, work, or school accounts. Highly recommend it! 🤩
Fairly easy to use. However sometimes when a Microsoft website sends a code it doesn’t always pop up in the app right away. You have to resend it after the app is open in order to see the code.
Extremely poor design. This app is designed and developed by the most stupid way. I changed phone and signed in it to this app on the new phone. I synced and did not get any of my auth codes back. A google search revealed that recovery is a separate option before signing in the app. Because I signed in first and synced, it overwrote all data.
I hate this app! I’ve been caught up in the grey tile-sign in loop for multiple times and until now I can’t find the solution to it. There are more than 100 people on the internet who faced the same issue as well. This is a terribly stupid loop. I’ve sent feedback about this matter months ago and there was NO REPLY AT ALL! I’d rather have less security with my account than NOT ABLE TO USE IT AT ALL.
Love the app. It works quickly, smoothly and gives me confidence in my ability to keep my data and apps and logins secure. I love using the password generator to share passwords around with my folks as well helping lift their security up in the process. You just cannot be too careful nowadays. I’m very glad I found this app. Don’t leave home without it!
Maybe the worst piece of software Microsoft has ever created, and I used Windows Vista! If you want to add a business or school account you will be stuck in an infinite loop of being asked to check the authenticator app, despite the fact that you are using it. If you choose “I cant use my authenticator app” option, it takes you to a page where your options are two different ways to use the authenticator. Anyone who worked on this app at Microsoft should be fired, and likely imprisoned.
wow. turns out that’s trash. been locked out from my account because of “error communicating with server”, reinstalled the app, all my accounts and data are gone, there is a “backup” option but no “restore” option, only asked for rewriting my old backup) good job guys, keep it up. very reliable as for security and authentication app.
Very annoying app and unresponsive. I have been locked out of all of my accounts and I tried contacting them twice with no reply at all. I understand it’s used for security, but it gets frustrating and there must be a link between authenticator app and sms in case someone can’t use the app for any reason or to reset their accounts.
It’s my favorite authenticator app since it syncs the codes with other devices and it has fingerprint protection. I don’t like how confusing the backup system is, I always have trouble figuring out how to log in and restore the synced 2FA codes to my device if I had to delete the app temporarily or got a new phone. It doesn’t seem to restore the 2FA codes automatically.
1/31/23 Update. App has a bug and trying to contact Microsoft using the links provided is nearly impossible. Clicking on payment button shuts it down 100% and asks me to report the error. Stars are dropping. I would hate to think that those trying desperately to access my accounts had any success.
Awesome. As everything that Microsoft does. This app allows me to save time. Notifications for games on my wishlist. Many more reasons for being loyal to Microsoft and the Xbox series consoles. Everything is all in one place. My Xbox series X is the heart of our home theater room.
/Edit: dark mode still unavailable 4 years later. Original review: This app is currently still missing a dark mode toggle (automatic/follow system). The backup/restore functionality works great. It would also be great if you could add new user-defined fields to the Password manager other than just (Website/Username/Password), that would indeed make it much more useful and remove the need for third-party password managers. Keep up the good work and best regards.
Frequent errors when using the login with this. I never had problems with VIP Access. The code is generated properly and when i enter the code here i get error “try signing in another way”. There is NO option to send feedback based on the error. This happens almost daily and when it happens usually it’s persistent. Clearing cookies doesn’t help. I don’t have time nor patience to debug this. You should make your app more robust.
Very simple and effective. One only needs to answer by selecting the same number the device that needs the confirmation presents. Cool. Love it. Update: Only one issue. It happened once, I don’t know what caused it, but at one time I reset my phone and was not able to restore the app from my back up as I always do. Hope it was a one time only.
learning how this works, essentially two step authenticator? But easier to use: login on device u r ASKING FOR authenticating FROM’s login counts as ONE; phone or other device is TWO . Two clicks. So pretty efficient. Oddly, I’ve been chasing this floating authenticator overlay dot on my phone for months, having forgotten how it really worked. had to do something in MS Office 365 which I didn’t have access to on my Mac BUT HAD PAID FOR. It asked; I clicked ≈ instant access. No headache. NICE.
Whoever designed that clearing Edge history (for privacy) also deletes Authenticator passwords hasn’t thought it through. Due to this I lost access to all my accounts upon trying to restore it. Spend over a day to get everything back in order and switched to a different auth due to both this and the fact this app got bugged in that it didn’t received notifications upon trying to log in. Microsoft needs to seperate function clear Edge history from this app and fix notification bug on Android 13.
Excellent security app. Only gripe is that it doesn’t back up accounts, so on moving devices, all accounts need to be reset, taking hours. Google Authenticator does back up accounts, making it far more convenient, although I suspect less secure.
TNT: It is not syncing to my Microsoft/Google accounts. It isn’t showing my profile picture and it doesn’t have other email not sure why it’s not working correctly but for the most part it synced all of my passwords. Aside from, that problem it works great.
Great for pure 2FA/MFA (my favorite), but missing too many features for a password manager. No secure password sharing, no emergency access for family members, no Windows app, no Firefox plugin, etc. Authenticator used to also lack a password generator, which MS has added, so there’s hope they will also add the other core password manager features over time.
Among all the 2 Factor Authentication apps available, this one is the best. Gets the job done without any fuss. One big advantage is that it’s synced to cloud. So if you lose your device, there is still a way to get this restored
unable to recover, it’s no different from googl authenticator, can’t be recovered after changing the device or resetting the device, garbage. i doing live support with Microsoft staff doesn’t actually add a solution but instead it becomes like just installing the Microsoft authenticator, all the otp data disappeared, the passwords I saved are all gone, omg a very bad experience from a big tech company.
Still can’t access my email from my phone. My email has worked fine for years. Now. I can’t access it. I miss three important emails because I’m not getting notifications. I downloaded this app because it’s supposed to fix things it doesn’t. It still can’t authenticate. Garbage app
I like the way the app works pretty much exactly like it’s designed. I find authenticating and storing my windows devices on the Microsoft server to be much easier for me than trying to look up passwords every single time.
The fingerprint and pattern/passsword/pin should be side by side. It forces on Fingerprint authentication. To skip that need to spam into fingerprint sensor so that it goes to the pattern authentication. It should not be the case. Add a both authentication just like other authenticator apps.
Authenticator app doesn’t open on my android device. When I reinstall, it will open for the very first time and once I close it, it will not open up again. I get enter PIN or fingerprint, when I use fingerprint or PIN it will just stay stucked in that screen and doesn’t move forward.
Taken a spectacular turn for the worse. The app constantly displays “error communicating with server” on app approval notifications. I can’t even sign up my new Surface because I can reset my password. Sheer frustration for doing basic things now.
I was forced to use this app, in case I need to have it by my decision I will never do it. So far I experience some lag. Sometimes the app even do not show any request for authorisation, and I need to request it once again. Seems all cloud applications have the same defect. They are not reliable.
Super quick and easy to use. Only minor gripe is that both Microsoft and Google have authenticator apps, wish that they made their app icons a little more distinctive so you could quickly identify which was which.
When I try to set up password less sign-in, it says my phone is already registered. But it doesn’t tell me any cluevas to which account or org it is registered with. This app is horrible, it’s too bad it won’t get fixed since Microsoft keeps laying off workers.
Pathetic UX I lost all my authenticator connections and am now unable to log in to multiple accounts. The ‘Begin recovery’ option should be highlighted and on top instead of being a minute font. Very bad, UX is not the main expectation, but functionality is.