Microsoft Authenticator : Official Wiki

Microsoft Authenticator

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Microsoft Authenticator is an iPhone and Android Productivity App, made by Microsoft Corporation. Today, it has gone through many interations by the developers - Microsoft Corporation, with the latest current version being 6.5.53 which was officially released on 2021-04-03. As a testament to the app's popularity or lack thereof, it has gathered a total of 92,347 Reviews on the Apple App Store alone, with an average user rating of 4.78226 out of a possible 5 stars.

How does it Work?

Use Microsoft Authenticator for easy, secure sign-ins for all your online accounts using multi-factor authentication, passwordless, or password autofill. You also have additional account management options for your Microsoft personal, work or school accounts. Getting started with multi-factor authentication Multi factor authentication (MFA) or two factor authentication (2FA) provides a second layer of security. When logging in with multi-factor authentication, you’ll enter your password, and then you’ll be asked for an additional way to prove it’s really you. Either approve the notification sent to the Microsoft Authenticator, or enter the one-time password (OTP) generated by the app. The one-time passwords (OTP codes) have a 30 second timer counting down. This timer is so you never have to use the same time-based one-time password (TOTP) twice and you don’t have to remember the number. The one-time password (OTP) doesn’t require you to be connected to a network, and it won’t drain your battery. You can add multiple accounts to your app, including non-Microsoft accounts like Facebook, Amazon, Dropbox, Google, LinkedIn, GitHub, and more. Getting started with passwordless Use your phone, not your password, to log into your Microsoft account. Just enter your username, then approve the notification sent to your phone. Your fingerprint, face ID, or PIN will provide a second layer of security in this two-step verification process. After you’ve signed in with two factor authentication (2FA), you’ll have access to all your Microsoft products and services, such as Outlook, OneDrive, Office, and more. Getting started with autofill Microsoft Authenticator app can also autofill passwords for you. Sign-in on the Passwords tab inside the Authenticator app with your personal Microsoft account to start syncing passwords, including the passwords saved in Microsoft Edge. Make Microsoft Authenticator the default autofill provider and start autofilling passwords on apps and sites you visit on your mobile. Your passwords are protected with multi-factor authentication in the app. You will need to prove yourself with your fingerprint, face ID, or PIN to access and autofill passwords on your mobile. You can also import passwords from Google Chrome and other password managers. Microsoft personal, work or school accounts Sometimes your work or school might ask you to install the Microsoft Authenticator when accessing certain files, emails, or apps. You will need to register your device to your organization through the app and add your work or school account. Microsoft Authenticator also supports cert-based authentication by issuing a certificate on your device. This will let your organization know that the sign-in request is coming from a trusted device and help you seamlessly and securely access additional Microsoft apps and services without needing to log into each. Because Microsoft Authenticator supports single sign-on, once you have proven your identity once, you will not need to log in again to other Microsoft apps on your device.

Top Reviews

Great on iPhone Watch app is a bust

By EdLewis2

Authenticator works very well on iPhone. It has been solid and reliable where i use it on a number of accounts. 5 stars. I was excited to hear a Apple Watch version came out. That is a complete bust, not working at all. Zero stars. The Watch app does nothing but declare that an account can be set up. Fiddling with it for a half hour gave the proclamation ‘setup successful’. Still not producing codes like it should I discovered to my dismay that the iPhone version crashed and had to be removed and reinstalled. Suggestion: take the Watch app off the store until it is properly documented and can be made to work. 5 stars for iPhone app, 0 for watch gives an average of 2.5 or 3.
Permalocked Account?

By Forever Denied

I’ve been using this successfully for several months after my company required it. A few weeks ago, on a Saturday, I received an authentification alert on my phone. I wasn’t working and wasn’t trying to log in so I thought, “oh no! Is someone trying to hack my account!? I’m glad I have this handy app that will let me deny the request and block them! Ha take that hacker!” The next time I tried to check email in Outlook, Authenticator immediately said that I denied the request, even though it never gave me the option. I’ve tried uninstalling and reinstalling this app and Outlook, called my company help desk, tried the Microsoft Support option, so far, no one has been able to fix it. So, from my experience, if you block unauthorized access to your account, which is the sole purpose of this app, your account will be permalocked and will be very difficult or (so far for me) impossible to unlock. I can still access my work account through my laptop, I’m just locked out of the Authenticator app and thus Outlook, on my phone.
This app is great

By MyExDumpedMeForATrashCan

So a few months ago I got my Xbox account hacked and I was really sad about it because I had lost a lot. Including my games ect. But then I found out the hacker stole my email and put it in this app because at the time I didn’t have this app. So that was a good lesson for me to use this app always and it’s absolutely fantastic because I have a lot of emails like work, school, and gaming of course but I feel like all my emails are super secure also I like the fact that when trying to log into another site with your email you have to get permission from the Authenticator app before you can do anything so if someone gets ahold of your email then they can’t log in at all.
6.4.1+ Interface Bloat

By Whoopmeister

This app was great until 6.4.1 at which time they decided to hide the main feature (the login keys) behind each respective account. So now instead of quickly opening the app ti grab your key you need to drill into each account. For those people that access multiple keys each time this becomes needlessly cumbersome. This feels like change for the sake of change without any forethought into how this will impact user workflow. In other words, it feels like a team of developers trying to justify their existence by running out of things to do. Come on Microsoft, seriously? When something just works why can’t you just leave well enough alone? I get that you wanted to add all the other functionality and it is useful in certain scenarios, but at least give users the option of what screen the app opens up to so we can have the old view where we see all account keys in one view.
Wonderful app, but two things could be improved

By 🐸 (Frog)

Let me start by saying this app works perfectly, the interface is nice, and it is responsive to sign-in requests. I really like the ability to lock the app with Touch ID, but I would like it even better if the iPhone passcode couldn’t be used to unlock after a failed Touch ID attempt. Also, I would really like the ability to disable password sign-in to my Microsoft account on new devices after setting up Authenticator. One last request, that has no impact on function whatsoever, but every other Microsoft app has a nice unified style to the app icons, so Microsoft, can we have a new icon? Please?
NEED DEVELOPER RESPONSE - Locked of all accounts

By JHesidenz

After upgrading to a new iPhone today, I restored everything from a backup earlier in the day. After installing everything I begin to login to several different accounts like discord, Twitter etc. I didn’t get very far until I got the request to confirm my identity via my Authenticator app. I opened my app to find NOTHING. All of my accounts were gone. I click “begin backup” and get the message that I don’t have a backup on my iCloud account, the same one I had been using for years. I’m completely at a loss. I’ve been frantically trying to contact support from Azure to Microsoft and haven’t found anyone who can or would be willing to help me. I have no idea what to do - this is an atrocious, horrific flaw with this app and I would never have downloaded it if I knew this could possibly happen. I desperately need someone to reach out to me to help correct this issue.
Good app. Using it for years

By Mjababababab

My company requires us to use 2FA. I liked this one because the Tap to authenticate is very easy to use (It’s integrated with O365 too). No codes to type in. The Watch app makes life really easy - it pops up and I Tap my wrist and I’m in. 4 stars because 2FA can be a pita. ESP on password change day. Every MS product makes me authenticate individually. Office, OneDrive, Teams, Windows. Ugh. At least it just a tap. I use it for home too. Except on my personal laptop. Why? Because 2FA is a pita at night. Having to go downstairs to find my phone just to login. I just want to look something up real quick but the 30day trust has expired and needs to be renewed. I grow tired of it in my house. Usually my iPad is nearer :-)
Not very friendly with iOS 14 and other apps it’s linked to

By Josh McClintock

Had to do my monthly password update/login protocol. Outlook states to enter password, click that and Authenticator opens up. Clicking continue does nothing except takes you to a blank screen with get codes on the top right. The only thin to do is to click that. It ask for your fingerprint and crashes right after. Reporting the issues says to contact my works IT because this couldn’t be their fault at all. Checked to see when their last update was and it was four weeks ago
iPhone app works; watch, not anymore

By BowFamily

This app used to be great. Somebody recently got the idea to add some additional “security theatre” to it, and now it’s a mess. Used to be you’d get a notice on your phone and after FaceID, you could just approve from the Home Screen. Now, you have to swipe and click your way through into the app to approve. Same used to be true on the watch. Used to be able to approve with the tap of my watch; no more. Now it displays no account information from the phone, and basically just announces the approval, which you have to approve in the phone app. As an added bonus, if you dismiss the approval on your watch, the announcement on your phone goes away too. So, the app functions, but usability is gone.
Was great on Watch but not now

By AZ_Doc

Been using this app for a long time. Works superbly. Recently gave error message that something had changed on the phone and permission needed to given again but after resetting by signing in with password it now seems to work well again on the phone. Unfortunately when I try to sign in it sends approval to both the app and phone as in the past but only seems to work on the phone. When I try to approve on the watch now it just gives an “Something Happened...” error. Not sure if this fixable by a Microsoft software update or things just need to be reset due to poor communication between the phone and watch.

External Links

Microsoft Corporation Official Website
Download for Free on On iTunes
Download for Android

Disclaimers:
This page was last edited on 2021-04-03.
Content is available under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 unless otherwise noted.
Microsoft Authenticator content and materials are trademarks and copyrights of Microsoft Corporation or its licensors. All rights reserved.
This site, Mycryptowiki, is not affiliated with Microsoft Corporation.

Microsoft Authenticator Wiki