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Was the same for me until I enrolled one of the above. I used a security key to get past that stage, then I was allowed add an Authenticator app. Very frustrating UX.

Most people don't have a hardware key so Google gets your verified phone number for free.

This worked. Thanks!

Am I understanding this correctly: you can't sign up with Authy for Google Accounts if you don't have a mobile device to authenticate with first..?

There's an option to use a hardware key. I don't have one so I couldn't try. I did the text message option and that worked.

I'm looking at a family member who has Google Mail and Google Voice because they don't have a cellphone.

I guess there's some needles here to be threaded, whether we stay or leave Google.

App on your iOS device is an open TOTP standard (RFC 6238) for which you can find a client on every possible device, including the command line.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time-based_One-Time_Password

Not quite - that option runs through Google apps. The TOTP client option only pops up once you've done another method.