Google Authenticator generates 2-Step Verification codes on your phone.
2-Step Verification provides stronger security for your Google Account by requiring a second step of verification when you sign in. In addition to your password, you’ll also need a code generated by the Google Authenticator app on your phone.
Learn more about 2-Step Verification: https://g.co/2step
Features:
* Generate verification codes without a data connection
* Google Authenticator works with many providers & accounts
* Dark theme available
* Automatic setup via QR code
* Transfer accounts between devices via QR code
Permission notice:
Camera: Needed to add accounts using QR codes
Still not secure. No way to backup accounts, no way to lock out anyone that gets access to your device. Even fingerprint authentication is better than nothing. But because there’s nothing anyone that has access to your phone has access to this app. Plus if you lose your phone, you lose your accounts because there’s no backup. Microsoft offers both of these features making their app much more appealing.
It would seem that I lost all keys I had during an OS update. Didn’t think to make a backup, going to have to see if I have a historical one that I can use to restore system to previous state. Luckily I mostly migrated to Microsoft authenticator and a separate password manager so I didn’t lose everything, but very inconvenient to reset the ones I did lose.
One of my gigs required this app, and that’s the only reason you would use this. It does its one job, with zero flexibility or forward planning. Biggest problem is that transferring it to an upgraded phone doesn’t work. The password won’t match. The only reason I didn’t get locked out of my account was because I kept my old phone ad a backup. Consumers, employers, stay away from this app.
This app works if you never switch to a new device. After my iPhone suddenly died on me, I switched to a Samsung Galaxy. If you lose access to a phone with the authentication app, there’s no other way to access the app to get a code. So since I couldn’t access my old phone, I had no other way of retrieiving a code and am locked out of a lot of my accounts. Very frustrating and seems like something Google should have figured out.
Works but is EXTREMELY barebones. Should be able to sync accounts and their codes across devices instead of just being able to transfer accounts based on a single QR code. Nevermind the fact the app completely lacks any password or biometrics like face or fingerprint scan to even open up the app is another removed security layer. Giving us an option to back up an encrypted file of all our accounts to local storage or cloud storage of our choice would be nice as well. Also the lack of darkmode.
The knock against this app seems to be the lack of a backup option, and no master password for locking the app. Both are easy to overcome. Put the app in the secure folder, which requires a password. For backup, you can export the codes to an old phone or tablet. You can sync manually with the export/import option should any changes arise. Tap and hold copies a code to the clipboard, and you can also rearrange entries by holding and moving, up or down. This is a perfectly good app!
This app is great… if you never want to change devices ever again. When trying to export to a new phone, it can’t process special characters(possibly including spaces). The editing inside the app also doesn’t allow you to remove parenthesis from certain keys like nintendo or facebook. I honestly can’t believe that a security app developed by the biggest name in tech has such a horrible oversight. As it is now I’m stuck burning a backup code. You only get a few of them, so that’s bad.
It’s a great authenticator, I’ve found it surprisingly easy to port my accounts from device to device using the QR feature. I do wish it’s Icon could fit better on Android 12+ with the Themed Icons enabled. And on slower devices, the app likes to stay on a white screen occasionally before actually starting up. A bit frustrating if you’re trying to sign in and have to wait a few seconds to just read a code.
It needs the ability to alphabetically sort and search the entries, instead of just using the order in which you added them with no search capability. Makes it cumbersome to find the entry you want. You end up having to memorize the order in which you added them so you know how far to scroll down. Try having 50+ entries and finding the one you are looking for in less than 15 seconds.
There is no way of recovering access to your authenticator. Things happen to phones all the time whether they break, get lost, or stolen, and then this app just ends up causing more problems than it solves. When you lose access to your accounts or wallets, this app only makes the problem more frustrating. Unfortunately this is a very common issue and to not have addressed it already gives me that much more to dislike about Google.
By having absolutely no way of recovering access to your authenticator, when things happen to phones all the time, is just causing more problems than it solves. When people lose access to their important accounts, is just as bad as somebody stealing it. It’s just basic common sense and I’m literally like the millionth person to go through this nonsense for it to continue.
Great app, but it has an issue importing new accounts! This issue is caused by entries with no text in their ’email’ field, which typically shows up inside parentheses at the end of the entry’s name. To work around this, rename any entries that happen to end in an empty parenthesis ‘()’, so that there is instead some text inside the parentheses, and then try exporting again. Hope this helps someone! UPDATE 2: Version 5.20 (seed encryption) creates extreme lag for most actions (100+ entries).
If you lose the app when resetting the mobile without having a backup, then you have a serious problem. So definitely not very fun. Am in the same situation as if my data was hacked with an encryption key. So this app should not be used without the app itself ensuring that you have created a backup of the encryption key.
Used to be fine. Tapping to uncover codes is super inconvenient if you have more than one application to choose from. Additionally, I opened my app three times just now and each time it acted like it was my first time opening the app – all my accounts were gone. For whatever reason opening the app through the app store worked, but I should never have stability issues using the app on a Google phone, for Pete’s sake. EDIT: doesn’t look like I have to tap codes now. Thank you!
I like the new Tap to Reveal feature. It hides codes which aren’t needed at the time. And is more secure when out in crowded places. Please bring it back (possibly as an option for users to chose) while maintaining decent performance. Sounds like a lot of people complained that the feature was slowing down the app.
You can’t transfer across devices with smart sync, have to use QR code on old device. Found this out the hard way after the fact when I sold and wiped my old phone after sync. What a garbage system, even if for secure purposes. I’ve lost access to a couple accounts thanks to this. There’s no clear notification if I have to do back up? Screw you, seriously screw you.
The app functions but the more you use this app the more it becomes clear that little UX testing has been done here for a while. Basic stuff like sorting the list or filtering are missing. Going through a long list of accounts to find the right one can become error prone and time consuming. Would have expected better.
This app is OK to use, but when I switched my phone, I lost all existing links with applications that use this app. There was no warning, no notifications. Only later, when I tried to access the app, I saw the instruction of what to do when switching phones. I mean, when I transferred data from the old device to the new one, EVERYTHING ELSE was transferred, but not this app. DO NOT USE THIS APP UNLESS YOU WANT TO BE LOCKED OUT OF YOUR ACCOUNTS.
This app could be great, but the problems start if you need to switch to a new device, or (God forbid) you lose your device with Authenticator on it. Switching to a new device requires that you set up Authenticator again for every account you use it with. Switching, as long as your old device still works, is a giant pain in the posterior, and if your device is lost or broken, well, you are out of luck, and locked out of everything protected by this 2FA. There is no way to backup or restore, or share account data between devices. I realize that there are security implications for backup or sharing, but the usability issues of not having backup or share among devices basically make this application useless for real-world applications. I switched to “Authy”, which supports backup and sharing. Maybe that is less secure, but if security locks out the authorized user, that’s pretty unacceptable, too. This should be rated as 2.5 stars. It works, but the usability is very poor.
Great App for total piece of mind. However, if you “dump” your phone, like I just did, you have to reinitialize the Authenticator on each and every website you had it enabled just as if you had changed your phone or phone number. I forgot to make a list of each of my websites I was using the App on, so I’m having to “discover” them as I access them. Yeah, it’s a pain, but if it wasn’t, the App would be nothing but window dressing.
The latest update is horrible. The app now runs slowly. The “Click to reveal PIN” feature is just a pain in the backside, especially as there’s no option to turn it off. There’s still no built in option to lock the app with biometrics (like Microsoft and many others have), and there’s no ability to back up in case your phone dies/is lost (no transfer to another phone is NOT backup).
works fine until you switch phones. The transfer app seemed to move everything, and it worked for 2 days, then lost all its data. There’s no backup capabilities, so if you lose or destroy your device, your accounts are gone, meaning you have to disable 2 factor authentication and redo it. Not so easy to do if you cant log in to start with.
I’m an IT professional and I understand the security implications of backing up the seeds in the cloud (though Google does just that anyway with your passwords if you want). Anyway, what users want is a way to EXPORT THE SEEDS so they can be imported into another device. Still doesn’t solve the “lost/stolen phone” problem, but much better than nothing.
Extremely difficult to set up. I was unable to complete the set up process on a new Pixel 3XL as every code it gave me during set up was invalid. Spent a great deal of time reading forums and articles regarding how to set it up after the instructions given during setup process failed and was still inoperable. I’ve rarely had any issues with Google products so I was a little frustrated with this. My wife set her 2 step verification up with ease. I handed my phone to her to set up and she couldn’t get it to work either. We’re both baffled.
Authenticator used to be great, but its just awful now. It takes FOREVER to load. ~5 seconds to open the app, even upwards to 10. when scrolling through codes, it takes nearly 10 seconds to load and even freezes sometimes, and you only have 20 seconds to input them before it resets. and the click to reveal code doesnt help. It also takes forever to load, and overall, is just a terrible experience. And also as a sidenote, if you lose your phone, you lose all hopes of getting the code back.
It appears that if your old phone stops working, there is no way to transfer accounts to your new phone. And you lose access to any account for any company foolish enough to rely on this app for 2FA. There is no point for this app. Two-factor authentication is great, but SMS works fine, and competing apps can actually be transferred easily between devices.
Cleaner and easier-to-use UI than other’s I’ve tried, but sorely needs a sort and/or filter for those of us with more than a half-dozen accounts. I have 9 right now and I’m already bothered by having to scroll up and down to find an entry in an unordered list. And while it ought to go without saying, reading the other reviews makes me see it needs said: for each account, have some other method to get in. An alternate email and/or phone, etc. You don’t want to be left locked out of everything when you leave your phone at the bar.
Whatever this last update did, it’s terrible. Starting the app from being completely closed its now a white screen for 10 seconds before the list of items comes up. And then you have to tap “reveal” to uncover in this weird fake pseudo-security feature. Even going back to the program when it was already open on device takes 5 seconds or so for the list to be populated.
The app is great, however like others have mentioned it is also limiting. There should be a way for the app to call like on Duo on a phone you have access to for authentication. Real life says that you may need to change your phone number, you may need to replace your phone or even lose it. It is way too limiting. Needs an update for alternative ways to use.
This app is painfully horrible now. If you have a lot of accounts it’s slow, lags, freezes, and I always have to wait to get the option to close the app/wait just to click Wait to scroll through my accounts only for it to freeze again. This app is barely usable. The old version before they pushed out the ‘Click to Reveal’ was solid and stable. Ever since the ‘Click to Reveal’ and the supposed ‘fix’ after, the app still crashes, lags, and freezes. Gave feedback in the app and still persists.
Same issue. Had to reset my phone. Once I restored all my apps this one wasn’t there. Re-downloaded it, for no reason as it turns out. I’ve now lost access to those accounts. Still have all the passwords, keys, phrases and whatnot, everything I need except access to this app. Disappointing.
Lol, I’ve needed to transfer accounts across two different phones the past 3 years and had to boot up my old phone both times, was a pain to hassle with it given how it barely functions. At least I was lucky enough to even manage to turn on my old phone, there’s no back up for those who completely lose access to their phones. There needs to be an option for those who’d like it to fix this issue. It’s been a problem for years and frankly using Google auth is a mistake, find a better app.
Recent change is nearly unusable. Time-based tokens work okay, if it takes an extra click to get to them. However, counter-based tokens are completely invisible. I can work around this by clicking the arrow to generate a token, and then long-press to copy the invisible pin, then paste it into another app somewhere so I can see it, but this is very time consuming and cumbersome.
App would be better if you could edit the entire name/identification of the account. For AWS accounts, the TLA is completly spelt out which doesn’t leave much room for the part that is editable. Therefore, sometimes I have to rotate my phone to landscape to see the whole thing. And/or using a logo of the service would be great, similar to other auth apps. Also, a remote, secured backup would be great. Seems like a big reason people don’t use/like this app.
While I like some of the new functionality, I have to give only 1 start. The new UI is so bad. I frankly would forego the new abilities for the old UI. The name of the key should take 2 lines if you are going to enlarge the font. The much smaller font for the key makes using the key harder. One of the things that I really liked in the old UI is that the key font was as large as the screen can handle. The large fonts make it much easier to re-find the key as you type the key. Why would you make the thing that I need to find only one time larger and simultaneously make the key harder to see? I can’t believe that there was any real UX testing or validation. The UX team needs to be educated.
Easy to use. Can re-order tokens with a long hold and drag. I did like the “tap to reveal” they just took away. Found that useful and I carry a bunch of tokens on multiple devices. Bring it back! Or at least the option to turn it on. Other than that, no issues.
I would think Google would provide a method for transferring the accounts between phones without manually going into the app. As in, during the backup process. I know it is a security issue, but when someone is using a phone transfer program, wouldn’t it be smart to mention that it needs to be done before they reset the phone. A big waste!
To call this app barebones would be the understatement of the century. The authentication works, but the user interface clearly had zero thought put into it whatsoever. Even the very most basic features like the ability to sort the sites for which you are storing authentication information are missing. If like me you need many authenticated sites, enjoy trying to find them at random because the only sort option is chronological. It’s pretty obvious nobody at Google even uses this app themselves
More Google Abandonware, unfortunately. It does the job, but the UX is terrible once you get more than 20 codes. Microsoft’s Authenticator is much, much better. (Also, of course you can’t transfer the codes, they are device specific! Any sort of backup would defeat the purpose! Don’t forget to download the backup codes and store them in a safe place in case you lose/refresh your phone!)
I like the new Tap to Reveal feature. It hides codes which aren’t needed at the time. And is more secure when out in crowded places. Please bring it back while maintaining decent performance. Sounds like a lot of people complained that the feature was slowing down the app.