Karandeep Singh / Android Authority
When a sizeable chunk of online attacks involves weak passwords and unauthorized account access, second-factor authentication (2FA) is one of those magic bullets that can save your digital life from getting compromised. But they’re only usable if they don’t become an inconvenience themselves.
Inconvenient — that’s exactly what a lot of 2FA apps have been for me. Some wanted to lock me down to their app, some had themselves been compromised, while others weren’t available on all the platforms I use. So, I was just jumping from one app to another whenever one started to trouble me enough.
My hunt has finally come to a rest, thanks to this 2FA app, Ente Auth, which I think is (almost) perfect. One that my inner tech support guy is going to recommend to my family without thinking twice. And I figured I’d bring it up with you guys too — not to sound cheesy, but you’re family too.
Which authenticator app do you use for 2FA? 144 votes Google Authenticator 31 % Authy 28 % Your password manager 19 % Something else (comment below) 22 %
Google Authenticator to Aegis to Ente Auth
Joe Hindy / Android Authority
I’ve never been a fan of the one-time password (TOTP) feature being built into password managers (like 1Password or Apple Passwords). That defeats the very purpose of “second” factor authentication by putting everything in the same app for the sake of convenience. While the password managers I’ve used — Enpass and Bitwarden — do have the option to link TOTPs to each of my saved credentials, I consciously decided to use a separate 2FA app.
Like every single person who’s felt the need for extra digital protection, I started off with Google Authenticator. As with several things Google, Authenticator is basic but still a solid place to start. It’s better than not using two-factor authentication at all. However, back in the day, it worked offline, so moving between devices became particularly difficult, especially for someone like me who needs to do that often. And it felt deprived of features compared to what the competition offered.
I went on a spree to de-Google my everyday apps a few years ago, and that’s when I found Aegis — a solid, open-source alternative to Google Authenticator. It had a clean interface and gave me the peace of mind of being completely local. But it still felt cumbersome when it came to cross-platform use. I had to manually move backups, and when I tried to switch to the iPhone 16 Pro Max last year, I learned that Aegis doesn’t offer an iOS app.
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