Ask HN: Which 2FA app do you use for your iPhone? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Which 2FA app do you use for your iPhone?

5 pointsyladiz6 comments

A while ago I switched to Authy for iPhone for handling my 2FA since it has a slick UI and offered a few additional features, but for a while I've been frustrated with the slow speed that the app has: I only have about 10 different accounts but it takes about 1 second to switch to a different account than the one currently displayed. The slow speed of the app has increasingly made me consider switching to a different app. I know that Google Authenticator exists, but I from what I remember it didn't have backups or Touch ID (or pin) integration, which I really like about Authy. Should I go back and check out Google Authenticator, or are there other 2FA apps that HN recommends?

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I also use Google Authenticator but find the UI breaks down after a dozen accounts (I have 30+). 1 Password also supports adding TOTP but that sort of violates separating password from the second factor…so I use it only for accounts whose loss would be annoying but not devastating.

I keep manual backups of the TOTP codes for all accounts, using a QR reader to decode the QR code they give out and saving the result in an encrypted file.

A variant of the Google Authenticator source code is available at https://github.com/google/google-authenticator but is not what's on the iOS/Android app stores.

I use Google Authenticator. It's actually more pertinent now after some recent hacks. People are calling cellphone providers and getting access to other people's simcards. Then they try to hack any accounts that use SMS our Authy 2FA. (Authy because it's tied to your phone, but google authenticator isn't).

LastPass Authenticator. It has Touch ID and pin support, plus the push notifications feature it has is really convenient. You can argue about the security concerns of using LastPass in the first place, but that's a different discussion IMO.

Authenticator by Matt Rubin https://appsto.re/us/ChQQT.i

Open source, lightweight, extremely small app size

Just tried my Authy and switching between accounts is instantaneous on a 2 year old smartphone.

OTP Auth [1]

It adds intelligent features over Google auth, including encryption of the database, and lets you break down into folders - which makes it infinitely more usable than Authenticator once you've accumulated enough sites.

I irritate very fast from apps that use 4 clicks when 2 would have done, or add other needless steps or hurdles. After around a year of flawless use I can't think of a single aspect that irritates. That's exceptionally rare for me!

It doesn't have ads, even in the free version. I gladly paid, even though I didn't need the few extra features the paid version adds. I just wanted to support very good software. There's a macOS version too, which I haven't tried.

Authy, on the other hand, was uninstalled before adding even one 2FA as it wanted phone and email before allowing you to do anything at all.

[1] https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/otp-auth-two-factor-authenti...

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