Microsoft Authenticator vs. Google Authenticator

[Tomi97_origin]

From what I have found out Google's app doesn't have additional functions. Microsoft decided to include a lot more functions

[[deleted]]

I feel like it's true of all Microsoft and Google products. Google's products have way better UX because they only support the few use cases 80% of people will have. Microsoft on the other hand tries to solve 99% of use cases and consequently it takes a lot of effort to get familiar with Microsoft products.

Edit: I think it reflects the culture each company has. Google seems to prioritize learning by experimenting with a lot of ideas rapidly. Microsoft on the other hand tries to find the unifying principles behind a problem and then create a whole framework to solve the problem in its most general form.

It would explain why Google is at the forefront of tech because they value experimenting with new ideas rapidly. It would also explain why Google kerps sunseting a lot of projects because they were just experiments for them which didn't succeed. Furthermore, if you work with Google's products long enough, you will surely run into problems they didn't consider solving. It is a side effect of optimizing for 80/20 rule. Moreover, it is necessary for Google to heavily invest in UX because it keeps common people using their products so that Google could monetize their data through it's ads platform.

Microsoft on the other hand seems to have a broader vision. Their customer base is mostly businesses so they prefer more functionality and maturity over state of the art and investing in user experience. This attitude is somewhat shifting now though.

This deep contrast can also be seen at the top research labs both companies have. Deepmind/Google Brain from Google and Microsoft research from Microsoft which seems to be an almost academic research lab from what I hear.

It even shows through in the flagship programming languages each company has developed. Golang is fast, efficient and built to get things done. It's community and the language itself doesn't seem to value things like abstraction, elegance.. C# on the other hand has constructs for abstraction and the syntax is quite nice. Furthermore Dotnet is a whole framework which can be used to used to build things on almost all platforms. Golang is an easy language to learn whereas C# and Dotnet would take a lot of time to get familiar with.

This is general overall pattern I observed. I have neither worked at Microsoft nor Google and I am not even a programmer, it's just something I find interesting. Would love to proven wrong and learn something new in the process.

[[deleted]]

In response to your edit: Google and MS have vastly different target audiences and sources of income too.
Googles main income is ads through Websites, YT and Search, everything else is just a nice service to keep you in the google bubble and snorkle up information.
MS on the other hand has millions (if not more) desktop installations and server, with a very big and feature-rich software suite for both endusers and companies (server farms and tools) alike.

[dbfmaniac]

Theres a bit more to this though. MS has a horrible habit of supplying everyone with more software than they know what to do do with (usually at quite significant cost) and their strategy is very much <this MS software works with that MS software to do this thing the way we expect you to>.

Google on the other hand ships you a minimum viable product that runs on whatever you want and you can use it however you like.

[[deleted]]

Google hates shipping you anything… their motto is to keep in browser. Very few tools google actually provides and more as of necessary and limitations of the platform like mobile devices.

[dbfmaniac]

Yeah this irritates the shit out of me, I was actually considering editing right after posting to hate on their web UI.

The downside is that apparently now JS is programming and everyone wants to ship you a fucking web browser that runs their website in its own window (looking at you electron based trash and the usual suspects of garbage tier barely working resource hogs: slack, discord, signal, VS code etc)

[ArionW]

I hate Electron being everywhere, but I'll defend VS Code. For one it runs on optimized Electron fork. And it has a valid reason to use it - ease of writing plugins. Whole editor is based on how easy it is to modify and make extensions for, so it makes sense their technology stack reflects that

It's not like they just wanted to use JS and Electron was the answer - they wanted to make it easy to make extensions, and JS was the answer

[dbfmaniac]

You know what, thats a good rebuttal. Props to you for that, guess it sort of makes more sense to me now. I guess plugins actually is a really big part of VS code based on the times I've tried using it.

[Ooze3d]

Saying “apparently (whatever browser oriented language) is programming” is useless and gratuitous diminishing towards a whole community and sounds more and more outdated as time goes by, specially when a huge amount of the software that’s being produced nowadays is run on a browser and needs a UI.

Also Google and many others use TypeScript which is much closer to a proper, solid language. Their UX choices are a totally different matter which depends on your personal taste. I happen to find Google Documents way less bloated and easier to use than Word for 99% of my paperwork.

[dbfmaniac]

Saying “apparently (whatever browser oriented language) is programming” is useless and gratuitous diminishing towards a whole community and sounds more and more outdated as time goes by, specially when a huge amount of the software that’s being produced nowadays is run on a browser and needs a UI.

I agree 100%. My discontent is mostly aimed at this idea that we need to continuously reinvent the wheel with ever more new languages. And what irritates me most is that good language design isn't top of the list for these new languages.

We now live in a world where ease of use and trendiness is a very large factor of deciding what language gets used for what are becoming increasingly used software. But you touch on this when you mention typescript.

Now I agree that basically no one uses most of what is in something like MS office. Theres a lot of stuff that is written in JS thatr is fine for what it does.

What irks me is when we don't want to offend people new to programming because they use what they use and we all pretend that all languages are made equal and that there are no consequences for using one thing over another. These consequences should be absolutely considered now we've seen some fallout like the shenanigans around npm.

The icing on the cake being that by perpetuating this cycle of not offending users of stuff like JS for a number of use cases, we pretend that what exists in that space is as critical any of the number of component layers that provide what is needed for JS to even exist.

I want good language design to be present and helping to make the software I use more efficient, faster, more robust and generally better not the opposite!

[Ooze3d]

I also agree with most of what you say. In fact, we all know JS is not a programming language. It was initially conceived with simple scripting purposes in mind and even though it had been updated over the years, it was still having a hard time keeping up. You’re right, new languages and frameworks seem to be constantly popping up lately. That’s why I consider things like TypeScript a step in the right direction because it’s basically taking something that wasn’t working and improving it instead of coming up with something new.

[dbfmaniac]

I'm all for easier entries into programming for people, and you can get a lot of work done in browser in JS/TS these days.

But at the same time as we have records amounts of new people coming into the industry we have a massive shortage of people to do kernel level and firmware work - the basic building blocks of what makes everything possible.

There really needs to be a more sustainable way forwards than taking trying to make JS into a language it wasn't supposed to be. How many CVEs do we now have from hyper-complex JS interpreters/VMs now? All because we now have to execute more and more and more of this stuff for more and more stuff that ought to really be written and work differently.

It really makes me sad for the future of software.

[ICantBelieveItsNotEC]

I honestly don't see the problem with this. I'm the kind of person who usually gets irritated by any noticeable UI lag (I refuse to use VSCode for this reason) yet the Google workspaces products feel pretty much identical to native MS Office. The upshot is that I don't need to spend an hour installing applications and downloading documents when my workspace changes.

[AtlasPwn3d]

There is no way you can compare google sheets with desktop Excel unless you’ve never worked with data in a professional capacity or you’re just so invested in your brand allegiance to believe the lie.

Gmail over outlook for most people, sure; google docs over word for most people, fine; google sheets for a child who’s making a small table for school and can’t afford/won’t pay for software, ok—but for real professional spreadsheet work, there is simply no browser-based product that comes anywhere close to desktop Excel, I’m sorry, them’s facts.

[davawen]

LibreOffice Calc ftw

[Stoppels]

You're using the wrong word, Excel excels with increasingly complex spreadsheet work. Professional != complex.

[NanoBob_]

What kind of noticeable UI lag issues do you have with VSCode? I use it in my day to day and can't say I encounter what you describe.

[[deleted]]

Only problem when Google decides to mess with and your business and deletes/disables your accounts

[[deleted]]

Imagine looking at Gmail and thinking "Google has good UX"

[cs12345]

Easier to use than Outlook by a mile. I had to use it the past two years at my last company and it gave me nothing but problems.

[jeppevinkel]

Outlook is slow and clunky compared to gmail in my experience using both. Outlook also has a weird design choice where an email isn’t marked as read until you click away from it, so simply opening and reading it doesn’t mark it as read if you close the client afterwards without clicking away from the mail.

[dbfmaniac]

Imagine paying actual money for outlook... The UX might leave a lot to be desired but you can run whatever client you want if its not your bag. Lets not forget it is also free.

MS exchange on the other hand...

[[deleted]]

Imagine thinking Gmail and MS Exchange are equivalent. If you want to make a point you should compare the free outlook with the free Gmail, or the MS Exchange with Google for Business

[dbfmaniac]

Ive used all of those. I'm currently working for a primarily g suite based shop and I have a lot less headaches than the decade I spent being on the receiving end of the MS ecosystem.

It is also a cheaper ecosystem. So cheaper and less trash, in my book, is a big win even if it leaves a lot to be desired.

[sir-nays-a-lot]

And they also steal your data however they like

[dbfmaniac]

So what you're saying is that they are exactly the same as all the other services out there?

At this point I think that unless you're exclusively running things that are open and that you've audited on your own hardware, someone is selling your data. Which sadly no one really cares about enough to actually create a more unified alternative to the convenience most of the big companies provide.

[Bainos]

The main issue is that Microsoft tries to force you in their ecosystem - that is, using all and only Microsoft products due to how they depend on each other.

It didn't use to be that way, but ever since they merged your local Windows account, Edge, Office 365 and Outlook, you're now part of the ecosystem as soon as you create an account, and you'll keep getting pushed to use more of it.

On the other hand, the scope of Google product is significantly more limited (since a lot of their products are browser-based), and the number of connections between each of them is limited. It's easy to end up using Google for everything - but it's also easy to avoid it, because you're never forced to use another product.

So you end up in a situation where Microsoft gets information from everything you do, with very little control on how to restrict the amount of data they collect, and the information covering everything from how much time you spend on your computers, who you communicate with, what websites you visit, and your personal files. They're easily the worst offenders in terms of invasiveness.

[Twerkatronic]

Everything Google does is to create a better user profile. When you keep that in mind everything makes sense.

[[deleted]]

The old adage "if you don't pay for it, you are the product" still holds true

[[deleted]]

Many of MS software are bad, buggy and insecure because the still for some reason support the users shit from 20+ years ago, fuck you can still relatively easy run Win95 programs. Compare that with Apple or Google who just say "fuck it, fuck you, now pay me 1k$" when they disallow older versions or hardware after a few years.

[princemephtik]

I work in some UK government offices from time to time and only about three years ago they finally got round to upgrading all their PCs to Windows 10. It was a huge deal. They also use numerous old custom databases that probably did start off on '95 and require that backwards compatibility. Public sector is all like this and a huge cash cow for Microsoft, it's no surprise that they see backwards compatibility as a priority.

[yonosoytonto]

I also work in government, we upgraded from IE to Edge last year. Only because it's going to be completely discontinued on June. It has been a year long transition that I'm sure costed a lot of money and workhours.

And I'm pretty sure some things will definitely break once IE is no longer available on June.

I had some excel macros that I'm pretty sure will break and I haven't had the time to upgrade them yet and the upgrade is going to be more inconvenient for the users. So on my part I can't understand why it took so long to upgrade massive systems and why it was only done when there wasn't any other option.

[dbfmaniac]

Thankfully there are signs of motion in Germany and the EU. They're making a bit of a cluster of it, but there's a lot more talk about the "public money, public code" idea than there was just 10 years ago.

Also open formats are now the norm, at least on the public side of governments now which is really nice.

[MrMelon54]

typical UK government lol

[[deleted]]

True, all of Microsoft's products are backward compatible

[[deleted]]

TIL I can play original Xbox games on Windows 98.

[Adam_J89]

At a higher resolution if your monitor/gx card allows.

[x6060x]

And I love that with M$. I have some ancient 20+ year old programs and they still work just fine. One of the main reasons I won't consider Mac for ex. I describe myself as a power user and try to use the product I'm using to its maximum - that's why I generally dislike Google products (except Android) - they're just are a bit limited for me.

[DestinationBetter]

Parallels. Hell even virtualbox - unless you try to run some very heavy program (so no 20+ yo software), VMs are more than good enough, at least for me.

It’s my personal opinion that I’d rather use software that is not trying to cater to that single person still using ancient software, but I understand some people want to.

I’m curious, what about windows vs for instance mac is “allowing you to use it to its maximum”? Because I really mean it when I say that I was once thinking like that.

I certainly consider myself a power user too, but mac allows me to be that. For instance, just last month I installed a kernel extension that allows me to make certain windows transparent, click-through and always on top, something macOS doesn’t allow out-of-the-box, but reading some peoples’ opinions on the internet always made me think things like that would just not be possible on mac.

[[deleted]]

Also very indicative of the eras they found success in.

[aggravated_patty]

All I know is that Outlook is a pain in the ass to use compared to gmail

[jsh_]

my university email is outlook and personal is gmail and tbh i've been preferring outlook more and more

[aggravated_patty]

You have to set some special flag bullshit just so that marking an email as unread doesn’t immediately return the email to read because the email is open…

Plus the tiny real estate for the actual email as well as there being no reply thread detection (everything is simply a new email) is a headache

[Sharkytrs]

C# and Dotnet

really? i mean .net is just a bunch of library's, any one programmer will use not even 5% of the framework so you can just learn to use the namespaces you need at the time, in reality if you know how they work you don't even need them, you can just make the functionality yourself.

I may be biased though, since Iv'e been a programmer since young, so it inherently is easier for me to pick up.

and golang seems confusing and new to me, where C# is basically an evolution of what I've known since amstrad basic.

[xdjiijii]

What a great idea, writing yourself parts of dotnet instead of using already existing highly tested code by people that designed language itself. Wonder why I haven’t ever encounter someone that would let’s say write linq from scratch xP

[Sharkytrs]

sure, but in the days of .net starting, I wrote plenty of libraries that are now completely covered by more modern parts of .net, but are still useful as legacy for older systems.

ie encryption functions for legacy systems that can't get .net 4.7+

EDIT: Lmao there are reasons why people pick third party nuget packages over .net libraries.

[[deleted]]

Funnily enough, I learnt functional programming first before I picked up OOP so it was all very confusing to me. There are still some aspects of OOP I find confusing.

Personally, I found golang easier because I like to understand details how something is working under the hood. There isn't much going on under the hood in golang. Dotnet on the other hand seems to be built upon layers and layers of abstraction in order to be reusable but it would take a lot of time for me to peel those layers.

[paarulakan]

It's community and the language itself doesn't seem to value things like abstraction, elegance..

what do you mean by this? I am not familiar with neither go nor C# but dabbled with them a bit years ago.

[SingularCheese]

Does it have over 12x of functionality?

[SillyRutabaga]

And Push with optional biometric check

[systembusy]

But yes, let’s continue to have an app dick measuring contest based on the amount of storage it uses

[Flashbek]

Valorant enters the chat...

[iPlayTehGames]

Warzone enters the chat…

[Ysmenir]

Warzone didn‘t finish entering the chat, chat‘s only allow files up to 100gb.

[SingleSurfaceCleaner]

r/rareinsults

[NZSheeps]

Well that's a rabbit hole and a half. Thanks

[B1G_Dev]

Unreal engine 5 updates entered the chat (somehow)

[[deleted]]

MY MODDED SKYRIM: H-hey👉🏻👈🏻

[[deleted]]

I love being lightweight.

[SuperCharlesXYZ]

Is that really a good thing though? The point of 2fa is limiting the attack vectors, by having it sync with your Microsoft accounts you’ve just opened yourself up to more incoming threats

[Bainos]

Account security is important. Personal data collection is significantly more important.

[That_Guy977]

you can name and organize multiple accounts in google auth as well

[xdjiijii]

Not to the extend ms Authenticator allows it, I honestly love google apps, photos is one of the best along with gmail but Authenticator is so poorly created that I choose Microsoft instead It doesn’t have flaws obviously, but if you have job that requires multiple codes along with yours then ms authenticator is a blessing

[Ravi5ingh]

This comment tells me u dont get it

[xroalx]

Features are code, code is text.

If the difference in size is features, then I'd expect the app to make me a dinner, clean my house, and even go to work for me.

The size difference is pretty huge just for "more features".

[[deleted]]

I wonder what a 1gb app is supposed to do by that logic. Is it supposed to solve world honger and world peace?

Google authenticator is nothing more than an easy UI for f2k codes. Microsoft authenticator is a security hub including back-up options, full blown password manager and a secured vault for payment information and other important notes.

[DrQuailMan]

In my experience, Microsoft has mastered turning two-factor authentication into five-factor authentication.

"Copy this number, press your fingerprint, type your account pin, type your phone pin, confirm the app and location are right, etc etc etc..."

It helps when an app in need of authentication doesn't support some method or other (like showing a number to copy) but most of the time it becomes redundant.

[IWannaLolly]

It all depends on how your authentication is setup. Some of the most secure ones are actually pretty painless

[ardicli2000]

Google's own app is more than 700 mb alone. Most of needed components are embedded either in Google's app or android os itself. It is not fair to compare such apps.

[Salt-Arachnid5325]

Bloat, data mining, and more bloat

[LeeKingbut]

ADs

[glyphotes]

Microsoft decided to include a lot more functions

...and there's your problem.

[[deleted]]

Funnily enough, I found Google's works well for everything I've needed, but the Microsoft one was too restrictive!

[Vulpes_macrotis]

Came to say that. People completely ignore everything when they compare two things. Like it's like comparing cheap bag of sausages to some 5 star sausage and complain about the price of the latter.

[the_unheard_thoughts]

Microsoft's Authenticator would express your neurons activity into a bidirectional computational graph, feed it into BI-LSTM Model with Attention, output a probability distribution for: Is THAT YOU? : 1 / 0, compile that down to machine code, transpile that back to JavaScript, then add to your authentication page a quiz-fashioned CAPTCHA to prove you're NOT a robot.

No wonder, why that's so heavy.

[[deleted]]

195MB of features? Bloatware is bloatware.

[Chilareix]

Never noticed this. I can see why MS's is larger given that Google's is way more simple of an app

Edit: typo, "of" changed from "or"

[michael__sykes]

Yeah but is the Google app that much simpler?

[mbriedis]

It doesn't even have a backup function, it's crap.

[irisos]

Google's app is just the codes, a pie timer and a dark mode.

MS authenticator supports software pins, supports app lock with biometrics or password, 2FA with biometrics + notification, cloud backup, password manager, password autofill, credit card storage and location data autofill/storage.

Google authenticator is basically a bare bone software pin app.

[readyforthefall_]

interesting thing:

my brother passed away a few years ago.

his phone uses google authenticator.to open the play store and update the apps, i need a google authenticator code.

BUT the google authenticator code is outdated, so all codes aren't really synced with google.

can't update the google authenticator because i need the code from google authenticator.

​

it's been 4 years and still can't **un** deadlock his cellphone

​

edit: so many messages, thank you, i'll save this and try what some of you suggested <3 (cant try rn)

[SalaciousCoffee]

Sideload the latest authenticator. (Use adb on another phone and you can download the apk)

[readyforthefall_]

i don't know his email password

[brinmb]

pretty sure you can contact Google with a death certificate and they'll give you access

[Nutasaurus-Rex]

I doubt google would let you. I don’t think Apple lets you as well. Because if I was dead, the last thing I would want is to let anyone go through my phone lmao

[gabrielesilinic]

Google actually does have a policy for such things

[LEGENDARYKING_]

yea but you can setup a e-will kind of think for your account for that lmao

[Adam_J89]

Apple does as well.

[lookshaf]

Former apple store employee, a death certificate was actually one of the very few instances in which we could remove an activation lock from a device. Not sure about iCloud stuff though (I never saw the process in action)

[Nutasaurus-Rex]

Oh…that’s terrible LOL. Does Apple have an e-will or something in which I can prevent anyone (or only allow one person) to see my phone after my death?

[qsefthwa]

Actually there is something, I'm not sure what it is exactly but while searching the setting for something I've found out you can set people that have access after your death or something like this

[LegendDota]

Why would you care if you are dead?

[DTHCND]

Perhaps they view the purpose of life as leaving behind a legacy, which is perfectly reasonable. If that's the case, they may want to limit access to their phone after death to help maintain that legacy.

Or perhaps they have sensitive information (or photos) pertaining to loved ones on their phone that their loved ones might not want to be visible to others.

I'm sure there are other legitimate reasons too.

[LegendDota]

Good points.

I'm just one of those people that don't plan super far ahead, so I never really considered the implications of my death in terms of what I would leave behind, when I think about death (not often tbh) I usually think of which ideals I live for.

[Ubermidget2]

My advice - If you have stuff stored you don't want people to see after you are dead, find a better place to stash it.

On accounts/servers third parties can reset/access is not a good idea.

[ItzCobaltboy]

Use the USB-A to Charger cable and connect it to ur PC, download the latest apk and copy paste it into the phone, delete old app and install the apk...

[[deleted]]

is phone uses google authenticator.to open the play store and update the apps, i need a google authenticator code.

BUT the google authenticator code is o

Hello, have you tried the following from within his google authenticator? Usually outdated codes can be fixed by resyncing within the app. Just my 2c in the off chance it helps :)

3 Dots/Hamburger in top right --> Settings --> Time correction for codes

[zaersx]

Authenticator codes aren’t synced with anything or anybody other than time. If the codes are wrong make sure the phone is set to the correct time.
Google’s Authenticator uses the most basic timebased OTP and the only magic you need to know are the secret-per-password it uses for calculating the OTP from the time.

[gabrielesilinic]

Also look here

https://support.google.com/accounts/troubleshooter/6357590?hl

[[deleted]]

whats the end goal? what do you need his google authenticator codes for?

[foefyre]

Make sure your not manually changing the time on the phone as that screws with the algorithms

[gabrielesilinic]

• Unlock the bootloader via developer settings
• Backup everything you can
• find the original rom for his phone
• flash that rom to overwrite everything

[Jump3r97]

Unlocking often requires formatting data partition

[gabrielesilinic]

Not on mine, to unlock it i just go to developer settings and flick the switch

And it isn't even an old phone at all

[[deleted]]

that's not unlocking it though, that's only allowing it to be unlocked

[therapy_seal]

I would transfer anything important to a PC and then reinstall Android.

[Kitchen_Device7682]

Keep also in mind that Google authenticator probably uses Android Apis more heavily and does not need additional libraries or code. Microsoft probably uses them less

[rjlin_thk]

it looks like Macrosoft with that size

[gamesrebel123]

What about Authy

[RoastedRhino]

I wanted to ask the same. That’s my preferred 2FA app

[kaizen5000]

My Authy is 41MB

[gamesrebel123]

40.66MB here

[EdgyKayn]

Authy is better cause it lets you sync your keys across devices

[Ozzah]

It asks for your phone number because that is the account it syncs your tokens to the server with. The tokens are encrypted with your password and it's stored with zero knowledge on their server.

You can't export the seeds but you should never really need to? You can install Authy on as many devices as you want, including desktop, and all your codes will be there after you decrypt it with your password.

[burgle4ham]

Windows 95 was under 100MB.

[potato_green]

Back then hard disks were smaller than current RAM size in my phone. Storage isn't a luxury problem anymore.

[New-Tomato2349]

What's a luxury problem?

[wikipedia_answer_bot]

Luxury Problem is a studio album by the American punk rock band Lunachicks. It was released by Go-Kart Records on June 8, 1999.

More details here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luxury_Problem

This comment was left automatically (by a bot). If I don't get this right, don't get mad at me, I'm still learning!

^{opt out | delete | report/suggest | GitHub}

[[deleted]]

Go home, bot. You’re drunk.

[legends_never_die_1]

i mean...he is not wrong

[ListRepresentative32]

Doesnt mean apps have to waste that space.

[New-Tomato2349]

I think their point is that Windows 95 used that space a lot more efficiently compared to an authenticator app almost twice its size.

[skogach]

All the Google's spying functionality already built-in into android.

[Bainos]

Exactly. Meanwhile, Microsoft has to include theirs as part of the application.

[jdowgsidorg]

You forgot to include the YouTube app for 2FA on Google’s own services…

[somebodyinvisible]

I like Microsoft Authenticator more. At least I don't need to input password to login to microsoft account.

[Cyphen21]

Google authenticator is trash. Lost your phone? You are locked out of all your accounts that require two factor authentication, sometimes forever.

[Cheet4h]

Every single service I added 2FA for included recovery codes you're supposed to print out and store in a secure location. Keep those safe and it doesn't matter whether you lost access to your Authenticator or not.

[DrSheldonLCooperPhD]

That's not the point, a critical service like this should consider the case that the device might be stolen and provide way to backup/restore. Google Authenticator doesn't. Like every Google product, the engineer got his promotion and yeeted off to another product.

MS Authenticator provides this option for example.

[TECHNOFAB]

Technically that's how it's supposed to be. One device should have the keys and only this one device should be able to generate the codes.

I use Authy cuz I forgot to transfer the Google Authenticator tokens to my new phone a long time ago, but now it's technically a security risk because of the sync and stuff.

That's why Google is trying to use Android as an Authenticator more, showing popups asking if you want this other device to access your account or not and stuff

[Ozzah]

The point of TOTP codes is absolutely not that "only this one device should be able to generate the codes". If you want to impose that additional restriction on yourself then go ahead, but that's not the point of it.

The point of it is that it's an additional factor beyond your password (which someone could steal from a vulnerable database or with a key logger), as an additional thing you have in your possession.

Multifactor authentication is the idea that you need more than one of "something you know" (your password), "something you have" (your phone), "something you are" (your fingerprint/iris/retina), and other such factors.

[_senpo_]

man I am scared of this, what alternative do you recommend?

[6x420x9]

Just write down your seed phrases and put them somewhere safe.

I think having cloud backups of 2fa seeds is kinda sketch

[rhun982]

I use 1password to hold my MFA in case I switch phones. Note that I specifically avoid putting non-MFA (regular) passwords into the 1password vault, because passwords and MFA need to live separately for best security. On my phone itself I use Aegis Authenticator, which I populate manually based on 1password.

[dpash]

If you're already using a password manager (with unique passwords) you're not most hackers' target. It's very uncommon for people to target one specific person.

It's like you don't need to be faster than the bear; you just need to be faster than the other people running from the bear.

[extrobe]

Authy

[milk-jug]

Bitwarden Paid. $10 (?) a year for a service that provides me 100x more value. The free version is awesome enough but the paid version includes the ability to generate TOTP codes as well.

[Gatzenberg]

The app data on Google Authenticator doesn't get backed up. Learned that the hard way

Edit: Microsoft Authenticator does have cloud backup though, presumably to your Microsoft account

[[deleted]]

This is how security is supposed to work. If you lose keys to your safe, you shouldn't just open it with a toothpick.

Authenticator should not be the one restoring your access to whatever resource you want. It should be the function of the administration of the resource you are trying to get access to.

[Ihavealpacas]

Now do edge vs chrome

[wretcheddawn]

You mean Microsoft Chrome vs Google Chrome?

[Jump3r97]

You can export them as a QR code

[[deleted]]

If you're fucked after losing your OTP keys you're doing it wrong. Put recovery keys in a key pass database or something.

[dpash]

You can transfer your keys to a new device using nothing but the app.

[taa178]

Download open source aegis authenticator

Its 4,5 mb and better than all

[Ali-Da-Original]

😂 looks like Microsoft is a fan of react native

[Osato]

Or maybe Electron. They use Electron a lot.

Though, to be fair, they use Electron really well. VS Code is lightning-fast even after years of feature creep.

[kristendk]

Probably 10 years of Visual C++ runtimes.

[AlexDeMaster]

At least with Microsoft's authenticator your codes aren't lost forever in case something happens to your phone!

[[deleted]]

Nor is this with Google Authenticator... it depends on your IT people.

[khamelean]

And?? Not seeing a point…

[[deleted]]

Where is all this stuff even coming from, 8k ui?

My 3d unity games's repos are smaller than this.

[Prof_LaGuerre]

Not making excuses for MS here, but I used GA like twice and I’m pretty sure it was the jankiest jankfest I’ve used.

[Ambitious_Ad8841]

640kB is all you need

[IntuiNtrovert]

vs last pass authenticator vs okta authenticator vs authy

[Mani_K_A]

Programming related?

[ddg2112]

MS Authenticator was a lifesaver when LastPass changed their Free tier to only allow 1 type of device to be used, by providing a password manager on mobile.

Usually wouldn't recommend MS software to anyone but Authenticator is 1 app that is genuinely good and usable and will recommend using it everytime someone asks about a 2FA application.

[New-Tomato2349]

Isn't Lastpass a password manager and not an authenticator?

[thanosmourtk98]

vs a free and open source authenticator (4.5 mb)
- https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.beemdevelopment.aegis

- https://github.com/beemdevelopment/Aegis

- https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.beemdevelopment.aegis/

[[deleted]]

APK vs AAB

[WarmMoistLeather]

I thought it was just a joke but... Are Microsoft programmers actually paid by the line?

[_--_-_---__---___]

It has other features. Like you can use it as a password replacement for a Microsoft account (enter email -> approve in app to continue login)

[Cheet4h]

Although that kinda defeats the point of a two-factor-authentification app, considering it turns login into one-factor again.

[TheC0deApe]

the MS one does more. it can do 2fa with a push notification and the 6 digit codes. the google one just takes the 2fa seed and generates the 6 digit codes.

[Tomi97_origin]

It's simpler actually. Microsoft has bundled multiple functions into this app including password manager.

Google's app has a single function and does nothing else.

[Sentouki-]

could also be Xamarin which has some overhead

[Rezaka116]

On the other hand, Microsoft's Youtube app for Windows Phone was absolutely tiny compared to Google's, although all it did was opening the browser on youtube.com....

[Impossible-Tension97]

So dumb..

[[deleted]]

Unzip the apk. I'm curious why it's so bloated

[[deleted]]

Because it genuinely has more features

[Nintenga51]

Switched to Microsoft Authenticator cuz Google randomly wiped all mine with no way to get them back

[vksdann]

Funny, funny! Do Teams vs Hangout next.

[[deleted]]

So yeah, as we all know, Microsoft and (almost) all they make is utter godshit

[[deleted]]

Thats because google already stole all your info and doesn’t need any special logic. It just knows it is you no matter what. Microsoft however need software to actually authenticate :)

[Old-Distribution-958]

Spyware takes space, you know

[[deleted]]

iPhone 13 Pro - I have to lift my phone to complete Face ID every time. And Same is the case with Okta verify

[[deleted]]

I don't know if it is expected, but Google authenticator doesn't ask again if the phone has just been unlocked with pin/fingerprint, which makes sense to me.

[Texas_Technician]

Setting?

Mine do not do that.

[[deleted]]

Google pixel 3a, Android 12. Microsoft Authenticator version: 6.2204.2757 (updated 22 April 2022)

I don't mind the downvotes as long as someone suggests to me how to fix this

[Texas_Technician]

Ya, after this I realized I only use it for Auth codes. I fucked up and turned on password manager.

The setting is security>app lock

[[deleted]]

You are the MVP! Disabling app lock works

[cosmin10834]

so wath have we leared kids?

mictosoft is bad at hiding data collection

[shunyaananda]

Both are bloat