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
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.
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.
