Authy’s Doing 2FA Well

gAuthenticator had been my go-to 2FA app since it was introduced. I’ve had recurring problems with it and started using Authy a few months ago. Most of my issues and requirements from this earlier post are addressed well by Authy.

Authy lets me use tokens it syncs across multiple devices. I’ve got tokens available to me across two iOS devices and an Ubuntu desktop app. It throws up reasonable flags first time / long time I log into Authy from a new app or location. This is huge and has prompted me to enable 2FA on more services.

They’ve executed this so well, I’ll complain about one nit: The iOS app did a fine job associating service provider icons with my tokens. The Ubuntu app shows mostly generic service icons which doesn’t make clear enough the apps associated with tokens. I can edit these and explicitly associate my own icons and labels, but most default to my email address used for the service so first I have to sort out which is what (by having two Authy devices and matching tokens from Known account to the desktop app).

By Steve McNally

I build products, teams and business lines that blend publishing, marketing and advertising technologies for global brands and startups.