Name: Microsoft Authenticator
Rating: 4.76668 (381907 reviews)

User Reviews for Microsoft Authenticator

4.77 out of 5

381.9K Ratings

4 years ago, yframed

Best authentication app I’ve used by far

This authentication app provides multitudes of features that allow users to authenticate in many different ways and allows for more than just two steps in verifying your identity—providing for an even more secure experience, if that’s what you’re looking for. I previously used Google Authenticator for most of my accounts and ended up losing a couple accounts over that. This app pulled the rug from under Google’s alternative and forced them to update their app after two years to make it actually usable for their consumers. Even after the updates, this app reigns supreme with the great abundance of security features it provides to users. Although the smoothness in transitions and smooth feel of the app overall be better, the UI is modern and I applaud Microsoft for that. I’d also like to applaud them for pushing the application heavily on their website. Even more people deserve to know about it and I believe it should be also pushed in advertisements. All in all, this is as close to perfection any authentication app has ever gotten and by far.

2 years ago, nayrnayr7628

Greatly improved

2-3 years ago (or longer?), this app was terrible. Lots of problems, and I remember being very frustrated with it. Fast forward to the last 12 months that I’ve been using it, and I’m really, really happy with it. It’s a critical app on my phone that I use to authenticate for Work AND for my personal Microsoft accounts. I like that Microsoft products can tell that multiple accounts are being used, and Authenticator has got it where it counts. I wish that transferring my data from my old phone to my new phone was a little bit easier. The main authentication mechanism at work breaks each time, and I have to go to a special website to set it up every time I get a new phone or wipe out my current phone and re-install everything.

3 years ago, ryanack24

Love the App! But could use some improvements

Overall, I love the app. It does its job and I can't argue with its functionality. However, I give it a four star because I do have a few concerns and complaints I'd like to see implemented. Its the simple aesthetics of the design of the authenticator. I would love to see folder/group settings implemented where you can group codes together under a drop down menu, instead of just having a whole spew of a list of random codes you have to scroll through. Something similar to the functionality of 2FAS Auth. Another thing I'd love to see would be Icons used instead of a boring, plain grey, busthead (maybe use the MS MFA logo?) When a logo isn't supported. Which I would like to also see more support on is icon support from various different services. I find only few companies like FB, Gitbub, and a few others are on the app. Again, I think my biggest complaint is to make it look more sexy of a design and UX. It's kind of boring at the moment. But overall, great app!

4 months ago, BuzzardBill

First ever app review

Let me begin with the cliche I would rate this infinitely lower if I could. I have been an avid and strong supporter of Microsoft for several years; first using it in the United States Navy then School and finally in the professional world, but this app and lack of support is ready to have me retract every good thing I have ever said about the company! I am having an issuing authenticating an account at my school. It is most likely the Schools fault. That being said there is no way to verify this as it is impossible to talk to a Microsoft representative over the phone. It is impossible to access support over chat without logging in to your account! I understand there are millions of problems every single day and it would be difficult for the company to address every single one, but don’t scale your company to the level that exceeds the volume of problems you are willing to address. Money hungry tech companies where CEO’s accumulate billions can’t expend the millions to outsource there trouble shooting it’s despicable and for the first time ever I am taking the time to rate an app and boy is this one a doozie. Shame on Microsoft may God have mercy on your positronic souls!

2 months ago, Starforeman

do not download this app, you can never get rid of it it is forever and it does not work well

I was just sent in circles 15 times re-entering in my email and password over and over again and this app will not sync with my email which means I now cannot use my email on my phone at all. This app is more than just aggravating, if you install it it will try to take over all the passwords on all of your apps and all of your signins there is no way to stop it doing this, I tried turning everything off in the app and it still would open the app if I was trying to sign into eBay or any other program I needed to use through safari or otherwise. Even after removing the app completely I cannot access my Mail on my phone, I’ve done everything you’re supposed to do including the text to your phone number and every other way of authenticating it will not allow me to do it and I’ve just wasted half an hour of my life trying to find a way to get it to work ****do not download this app, you can never get rid of it it is forever and it does not work well****

5 months ago, iMatterfact

Fix it come on now

Simplify having two Microsoft accounts as recovery or as primary accounts change notification jargon to improve security by not notifying what each notification is for- use two primary accounts and both of them are not work or office emails then you’re going to have a hard time loading all of your codes from each of those emails into one app easily accessible by the owner of those emails and authenticator account it is ridiculous backwards, and opposite of what I’ve heard from customer service and Microsoft stop giving people the runaround the stack needs fixing that You care about making money somehow or do you care about having a useful app? Instead of making the people happy and spoon feeding them each notification with exactly what it is. Perhaps you can disclaim initially and declare that you will only notify for security reasons but you’re alerts your banners they should be either customizable or we should be able to hide them?

6 months ago, Pop culture nerd

Useless

Until the most recent iOS update I was able to log into my Microsoft Outlook work email account without any issues. Now, every time I attempt to login it pulls up the authentication app I receive an error stating my sign in was successful but does not meet the criteria to access this resource. I do not know what this means but the issue is I can no access my work email. I’m hoping this a software update bug that will be resolved soon. You cannot access this right now Your sign-in was successful but does not meet the criteria to access this resource. For example, you might be signing in from a browser, app, or location that is restricted by your admin. I recently found out from a colleague that my company’s IT people purposely restricted our access to check email outside of work for security reasons. It isn’t a software bug but was done by design. Prior to this change the app seemed to function normally.

10 months ago, Non-Fiction Fan

Does not back up secret keys

Caution: You have no backup. Read that again. With this app you do not have a backup of your MFA Secret keys. You probably obtained this app in order to login to Microsoft 365 with MFA. If you are a system administrator type you probably have about 30 Microsoft 365 Accounts. Then you decide to get a new phone and you learn that the keys used to generate codes cannot be transferred to the new phone. This app has the word “backup” but it does not make a useful backup. It will perform the restore just fine and you will see every account you had, and they will all be broken. you will have to log into each and every account individually and create a new MFA device. This app is incredibly dangerous, you should stay away from it. It gives you a false sense of security. It should simply tell you it’s not capable of backing up secret keys for Microsoft 365 Accounts. To be fair, it does back up secret keys for non-Microsoft accounts. If you use literally any other authenticator app, it will back up all of your secret keys, unlike this app. I believe it’s against Apple’s rules to name the names of those other apps in this review, but I can tell you I have personally used them all, and I just got done restoring codes from about six different apps, and only Microsoft is unable to restore Secret keys. This app is a dangerous menace. Do not be foolish enough to trust its claims of performing a backup or you will be sorry.

3 months ago, F-Microsoft

Deny doesn’t work right

In short, my account was hacked after selecting Deny multiple times when the intruder was trying to gain access to my account. After selecting Deny 4 x’s, they were able to access the login site and have a onetime passcode sent to an email of their choosing, allowing them access to modify my account. Can someone inform me how this is safe, and appropriate for Microsoft to allow this in such a convenient manner? What’s the point of denying authentication if they can just have a passcode sent to them immediately, to an email not noted on the account??? If denied multiple times, the account should be temporarily placed into a frozen state allowing Microsoft time to investigate. If a onetime passcode is sent to an email not noted on the account, then the account should be temporarily placed into a frozen state to allow Microsoft time to investigate. Be proactive, not reactive. There are so many logical things wrong with this breach and yet nobody in Microsoft’s security is taking this seriously, or addressing the issue. You guys are really killing it.

4 years ago, Forever Denied

Permalocked Account?

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.

7 months ago, Niccnams

Couldn’t be worse

This app will log you out and malfunction regularly. If you are using this for work accounts, be prepared to randomly not be able to do your job. The app will log you out and then ask you to use the app to verify yourself to log you back in, which obviously you can’t do if you’re logged out. There is apparently no other way of logging in either. And that’s when it even admits that you have a Microsoft account, which it occasionally won’t do. This has happened 3 times now. Updating and removing the app doesn’t help, I’ve tried. Sometimes it’ll make you endlessly authenticate something on a loop forever. Forget about being able to use it if you upgrade your phone. Everything is gone after that. I’ve never seen an app work this poorly. Unfortunately, my company just adopted it as a log in process, so I’m trying to convince IT to find a way to remove it from my process, like the older employees have because it’s just too frustrating.

3 weeks ago, Devilishous13

Highly recommended

I’ve been using Microsoft authentication app for about 7-10 years it’s never given me any problems as long as I had the device it was installed on. I am the world’s worst when it comes to forgetting every single password I have created and almost as soon as I create the account login information. I just got and iPhone 11 so I’m trying really hard to get anything as close to what is needed for my apps to continue working properly. I personally highly recommend this app. I did install the google authentication app but to be honest when I clicked on the option I thought it was going to pull up my Microsoft authentication app so I will more than likely end up deleting and uninstalling the other one for space purposes.

3 years ago, Droppachoppa474

This is not 2 Step verification.

Updated: after doing a little more research and trying different things I realized that passwordless logins only happen on my devices. I logged in 5 different devices that were mine and I didn’t have to put a password only a pop up of approval on my other devices which scared me cause it’s one step verification. but I guess it’s cause it recognized my device. But if you grab another device that’s not yours it will ask for a password. I think this is the way it works. Not 100% sure. I think this is a great idea to make it more seamlessly for the user. But it would be pretty great if we can choose to either have that option on or off. Changing my rating to 5 stars. Great work guys.

10 months ago, Literroy

Apple Watch app useless for me

I’m writing this review solely about the Apple Watch app. I used to be able to authenticate login requests directly from my watch, so I could leave my phone in the other room, or at least not have to physically open the app every time I needed to log in. Now my organization moved to using the type of authentication where you have to enter a number from the login screen into your authenticator. Unfortunately, this renders the watch app useless as you can’t enter that number on the watch. The thing is, there’s no technical reason for this. Typing numbers on the watch is easy. But the app doesn’t support letting me do that. So logging in with the app, which used to be a very quick and easy occasion, is now a huge pain point in my day. If you update the Apple Watch app to have this functionality, I’ll happily revise my review, but unfortunately this app is now one that feels like a struggle as is.

3 years ago, SimonTuffGuy

Our preferred MFA application

Microsoft Authenticator is our suggestion for all of our MSP clients when we need to suggest a MFA application to use. The only recommendation I have would be to include the ability to create groups of accounts that could be toggled to display or not; for example I rarely have to see my personal accounts for Facebook or eBay, so being able to group them as “Personal” and not have to scroll past them to find others, but expand on them as needed, would be a huge selling point. And, yes, I understand being able to organize them, but with well over 100 accounts in the app, I’m seemingly scrolling for for just about all of them except for the primary/top 5.

1 year ago, microsofsausted.

Pedantic squared.

I feel Microsoft products are created by engineers for accountants to use. They are safely the most pedantic and non intuitive as a good Rube Goldberg machine. In this instance I’m trying to re- add my outlook to my iPad and because it now has the stupid two phase interlacing of souls I must go through the authentication app. But when the authenticate app asks me to then type in the special secret decoder ring number before I can run into the next road block it secretly already created the next three by telling me to go to the authentication app (which I’m currently on) to get the number for the authentication app (which I’m currently on) to unlock the next phase of my Microsoft jail puzzle (which I can’t do because I’m being asked to get a number from an app that is asking me to get a number from itself). It’s maddening. Why does it have to be this difficult Microsoft? What secrets are going to be stolen from us here at this mom and pop faux blinds sales office?

2 years ago, Ani O'Moss

Complete and utter garbage

Microsoft Authenticator is by far the most frustrating part of getting a new phone. The piece of trash can't figure out settings (e.g. iCloud) have changed without hard killing the process and reopening it. It also doesn't actually sync over if you get a new phone. Awesome, now I need to get multiple accounts reset after wasting an hour fighting it to try and sync right and logging in literally like 5 times to just make it able to "sync" (the same thing happens with Visual Studio, Outlook, Azure, basically all of their garbage continuously). At least it told me what accounts I have; that's super useful, to know the accounts and be unable to do anything with them. Can't get hacked if I can't get in, checkmate hackers. I didn't expect much from Microsoft since I have to work with and support their products (and seeing as Windows 11's big selling point is ripping off the macOS 10.3 dock), but I'm still disappointed.

6 years ago, EdLewis2

Great on iPhone Watch app is a bust

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.

2 years ago, Jess-123454321

Horrible Authenticator for iOS users

Google Authenticator works flawlessly, every time. So 2F Authentication can be done well for iOS. Microsoft just had a very poor execution of it. I was suddenly booted from my email (outlook365 from my web browser) as of yesterday. I’m told to accept the request pushed to Microsoft Authenticator. No request is there. I use alternate methods (all of them) and no matter what, I’m still routed to again accept a push notification that I'm not receiving. I tried looking in iOS settings and everything looks fine - push notifications are enabled, etc. I tried deleting and reinstalling the app, no luck. There are NO guidelines online. Several people have written on Microsoft forum with this problem and no technician has answered. I, of course, cannot write on the forum because I cannot log into my account. This is just a terrible app because it provides absolutely no troubleshooting help at all.

2 years ago, GEMillam

Stiil fails to sync with Apple Watch

Got an Apple Watch? Wouldn’t it be cool to respond to Authenticator requests from that computer on your wrist instead of digging out your phone and logging into it instead? Would make the password-less dream a lot easier. Except Microsoft Authenticator still has the bug where the linking process of accounts from the iPhone app to the Watch app fails, over and over and over. It starts with a little screen on the iPhone saying it’s beginning the sync, but that goes away quickly and the Watch app eventually times out and fails. I’ve tried everything, and my reading on Microsoft’s forums says I am very not alone. Yet software from far lesser companies than Microsoft are able to pull off this data syncing trick just fine. Maybe send your devs to WWDC and talk to some Apple engineers about the problem? I don’t get it.

1 year ago, JPEwing

Fixed the problem that made me hate it

I recently reviewed this when they had just removed the Apple Watch app, and the only notifications that were coming through. When I authenticated with my work environment, the notification was that I needed to pick up my phone in order to authenticate, where previously I could do the authentication on the watch directly. Losing this functionality was intolerable from my standpoint. Fortunately, it looks like they restored this functionality, and I am now able to authenticate from my watch again without having to pick up my phone. Given that, I will put this back up to four stars. I would have called at five, but they still get dinged for doing that in the first place.

1 year ago, HelplessManInNeed

Not Working as it Should

After reading a lot of the Most Recent reviews, it seems I’m not the only one in claiming that the app doesn’t work. Codes are not appearing on the Authenticator as they are supposed to, as they USED TO. Perhaps it’s the introduction of the iOS 16.5.1 update, but since then I haven’t been able to log-in to my email. I’ve gone through ALL the troubleshooting recommendations posted on the Microsoft Support page with no luck. All of my notification settings are as they should be, I’ve restarted my phone, I don’t have any third-party apps potentially causing interference. I’ve deleted my account from the authenticator to re-add it and, like others have stated, in order for me to get into my account I have to AUTHENTICATE WITH THE APP— it’s so backwards. Alternative methods of verification, STILL REQUIRE YOU TO USE THE APP. TLDR: Authentication Codes do not show up in the app and I’ve tried everything.

8 months ago, SweSwirl

Works great when it works

Got a new phone. iCloud backup recovery didn’t restore this app fully. All good, but when I go to restore from Microsoft backup it tells me I’ve tried to log in too many times and to try again tomorrow. Uhm… first of all, no I haven’t and second, F you very much. And when I try to use my Microsoft security key (backup option for recovery) to gain access again, it tells me I have to wait 30 days!! Microsoft, security is one thing but when I, as the rightful owner, can’t even access my own accounts despite having all the right info, your essentially no better than a hacker locking me out of my accounts.

5 years ago, MyExDumpedMeForATrashCan

This app is great

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.

4 years ago, Pookletons

6.4.1+ Interface Bloat

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.

3 years ago, absant

Great App, but... (bug)

Update: Updating my rating back to 4 star. Ok, the option to hide the input form now has a 5 second delay to allow me to see the number. This works out, but a second or two delay before the form pops up in this particular scenario would have been ideal. The app is great and does what it exactly what it is suppose to do. However, there is a bug in which our company login policy requires a number to be typed in. When the number shows up, it gets immediately blocked by the input screen, with barely a glimpse or no time to see what the number was. I'll update the review once this bug is fixed.

3 years ago, ozzie_84

Updates that break Apple Watch functionality

Your last update on Oct 7th, 2021 broke Apple Watch functionality again!! It has happened in the past. While this is a minor inconvenience, it is important for some of us that purposely stay away from our phones to focus on other activities like work. I can always approve access for security intensive applications (require frequent approvals) from the phone. Unfortunately, the Apple Watch application does not currently offer the same feature as it is broken and consistently fail on approvals. Please keep that in mind as you do regular updates to this app.

5 years ago, JHesidenz

NEED DEVELOPER RESPONSE - Locked of all accounts

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.

3 years ago, 🐸 (Frog)

Wonderful app, but two things could be improved

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?

3 years ago, needsUserName

Authenticator app deleted and backup didnt work

The app just suddenly disappeared from my phone one day and when trying to recover my accounts, all my backup was lost! The only thing i can think of the reason why this happened was I had installed company profile and other company shenanigans on my phone. Since i wasnt accessing company apps anymore, i deleted all of them. I didnt give any permission for this app to be deleted. What’s worse is I backed up my accounr but somehow i didnt get anything recovered! It even shows the correct latest backup date and time. So i dont understand???? Bad enough the UI/UX just looks so clunky and confusing, esp when backing up…. I had been so happy to use this but now this is a headache. I cant even trust this app wont ghost me one day or backup my authenticator accounts. :/

5 years ago, ItsTheArsonist

Watch app is not up to park with Phone app

I don't believe I've ever been able to get the Authenticator app to work properly with push notifications on the Apple Watch. I get the notification on the Watch just fine. I approve it, select the correct number shown on the screen, then it thinks for a second and says "Something went wrong." I pull out my phone and perform the same steps and it works great, Face ID and all that goodness on the phone. This issue has persisted two different phones, multiple app updates, and different IOS builds. Not sure if MS will ever fix it but I'll hold out hope for them to fix the otherwise great service.

1 year ago, BarreRox18

Forewarning

As a Microsoft app, you would think that there would be an advisory regarding other application passwords. You saved within the password saver and that if you for some reason need to change your phone or you lose your phone, you will also lose all of your passwords. Apple seems to have done a decent job at allowing you to retain those passwords especially when moving from device to device, however Microsoft has not. Then again I do realize that I’m writing a review for a Microsoft application on an Apple device. Therefore, what say do I have in any of it?

2 years ago, A2gt789

Deleted all passwords

Worked fine for years, set up on my new phone, and started slowly migrating over to iCloud. Then at the beginning of this week I went to load one of my non-migrated passwords and it was just gone. The app will load, unlock from Face ID, select the "saved" password profile based off of the domain/app you're trying to autofill, and no password is filled. Going into the app and selected password profile, and it shows asterisks showing that it's "hiding" the password. Selecting "show password" shows an empty password block; select any other password profile, select "show password", and they're all gone. Fascinating, thanks for producing at least an hours worth of work for me now to recover and reset around 110 passwords across different domains. I'm done with this now, and not going back; best of luck everyone else.

4 years ago, Josh McClintock

Not very friendly with iOS 14 and other apps it’s linked to

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

4 years ago, exochoego🐹❄️❤️

Locked App

The app has been great and convenient; as long as there’s access to the internet, it works. But today when I try to use it, it is locked. It requires Touch ID to unlock the app (or enter the passcode but there isn’t an option popped up for that), while my Touch ID is currently broken. So I can’t verify my email from now on until the problem is fixed. I deleted the app and reinstalled it, which allowed me to enter it without requiring Touch ID. I went settings and wanted to turn off the requiring-Touch-ID feature, yet it wouldn’t let me do it because turning it off also requires Touch ID. I try to seek support but it seems difficult to find where I can report my problem, so I write it in the review. Please fix the bug to enable people to enter passcode. Only allowing Touch ID is highly inconvenient.

4 years ago, AZ_Doc

Was great on Watch but not now

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.

4 months ago, Peter Pari

Great app, but needs updates in terms of design and password manager

The Authenticator app is great! It is very easy to use and offers many features, but the app is outdated. There is no feature telling you if your password is compromised like on Apple keychain or Google passwords. There half of the screens are old, and half are new. The design is outdated and there are many other Microsoft apps with new looks that put this to shame. The app is good for its main purpose, but again, the password manager is super outdated. It doesn’t tell you if there are reused passwords, like competitors. The password manager is just basically a database, and if you want any information about how safe your passwords are, don’t use this app.

1 year ago, Nhoskins1999

As always, Microsoft made a terrible piece of software.

Today, my Authenticator app broke on me and won’t let me sign into my office account to download a file that I need for work. It is making it very difficult for me to do my job, and I am relying on it to let me finish my tasks for today. Very frustrating piece of software and Microsoft has literally no tech support as their phone hangs up on you. Very irritating. If your organization has the option to use anything else, I would strongly recommend against using Microsoft products and services. I know that some places are so deeply ingrained in their products, which is unfortunate, but if you have the option, use some thing that is not going to lock your employees out with no way to fix it on their own (and with no customer support to help).

2 years ago, Kamrieyn45

Most annoying thing ever

I don’t write reviews at all, but this app has got to be the worst thing ever. I have to use this app for my work unfortunately and I have never been so frustrated with anything more than I am with this. Almost everyday no matter what I do this thing makes me sign in which is not required by my work everyday. When I complete the steps needed, since it decided to log me out it’ll make me go through the exact same thing at least 5 or more times for absolutely no reason. That’s frustrating, especially when I have time sensitive things I need to do but can’t because the app is trying to make me sign in when I’ve already done it at least 6 times. If I wasn’t required to have this for work this would not be something I would ever have on my phone.

5 months ago, arbnknight

Needs a refresh

Two things: A. It needs to better align with the iOS design language. For example, when I pull down the list of accounts it should display a search box. This a pretty common design language across iOS apps. A hold down should be a refresh. B. Most other password managers support Apple Watch. Where is the support for Apple Watch? Why? Well because of OTP support. I am all in on OTP in Authenticator but I am thinking of moving to another app because I can get my OTP for certain accounts on my Watch so I always have them handy. Not for all sites but just those that have high frequency of OTP prompting, I use away from my phone, and don’t store extremely sensitive content.

4 years ago, BowFamily

iPhone app works; watch, not anymore

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.

9 months ago, Tearaassa

Not sending verification codes

This app stop sending me verification codes. Once I updated my phone I can no longer access to my work email on Outlook. Also once I added my work email to Outlook it stopped working and it signed me out on my work email so I’m unable to sign into my work email, because it says I need to do a verification for Microsoft and it says the number but it never sends mea pop-up to choose the number to actually access my account. I haven’t been able to access my account for over two days now I can go on a regular computer and I still can’t access it because Microsoft will not let me that Hass to be a glitch or something is a lot of people having this problem please figure this out I’m losing important emails and access to my work email.

1 year ago, CatherineFAJ

The worst.

Even though I have the latest version of the app the process that’s used to authenticate hasn’t worked for me. Also something that’s very annoying is when you are trying to sign in it will make you sign up through the authenticate app that you still need to have access to to actually authenticate your sign in. So it’s like if I’m signing in through the app why add that if you’re not gonna make it possible for me to actually go through the process. Doing it through the authenticate app should bypass that since I’m doing it through the authenticator. But that’s all. I hate the app. Also I don’t have this for my personal Microsoft account so when I try to sign in it takes me to the app which I don’t care for.

1 year ago, JustgivemearandomnicknameK?

Slow decline

The current version of the app has finally crossed the last line of bloat. It now blocks access to the app if you don’t agree to allow it to collect and report data on your use of the app in the background. While they don’t say what they are collecting, that is a secondary issue to the fact that a TOPT authenticator does not need and should not connect to ANY network connection. Those codes are supposed to be offline to protect them, and they don’t need network access by design. So now we can’t use the app or view our existing codes unless we agree to activate invisible data collection that opens the app up to a host of potential bugs and attacks. All so they can collect data they don’t need constantly from users that aren’t having a problem with the app. The companies that make the iOS “telemetry “ tools have introduced bugs into the apps that incorporate them already. They will do it again, and some of the users of these apps are protecting important assets or systems. App deleted. Best of luck unless you replace the always on spyware with a local log and an upload report prompt.

2 years ago, dd98203

Disorganized and faulty

Once I made decisions on notifications, two-step authenticator settings, and account information, there was no way to change any of it. Now I can’t receive any codes, and there is no support line for me to reach out to other than a bunch of FAQ pages that lead me nowhere. The app also denies that my account exists, even though it’s been registered on the app for over a month. The settings are minimal in their adaptability, and every link leads me to yet another online page that gives me nothing. It has never been so difficult to access my own account, which was perfectly accessible until the organization telling me to use this app also demanded I change the password, which is what kicked me out in the first place. This app really doesn’t like change.

3 years ago, TheNgbaka

Great app but…

This is by far the best Authenticator App on the market. However I just got an Apple Watch which has the ability to use this app. Unfortunately on the watch, you have to recreate the logins in the app. Meaning you have to delete and remove the login in the app, then re-add the login on the app(on you phone) so you can add it to the watch at the same time. If you’re like me and you have a bunch of logins, this is very tedious. Needless to say, I will not be using this app on my watch until this is fixed. Please fix this issue and allow the app on the watch to sync directly to the app on the phone so all logins are already there. This is the only reason for the 3 stars.

1 year ago, syler_jax

Absolutely atrocious

I downloaded this app after my account was compromised in hopes it would prevent it from happening again. Recently my account has been hacked again and I thought this would prevent that since I would need to approve it, but low and behold, this app did absolutely nothing to prevent it. My account was compromised and my information was leaked, including my bank information which the hacker proceeded to take over 200$ U.S.D from me. I had no clue this was happening and in fact I never received any emails on a foreign sign in, nor did they send a notification or attempt to prevent the sign in by using the authentication system they have, this app is absolutely horrible, dont download this app. Save the extra storage space on your phone instead of downloading this garbage.

2 years ago, TechI3m@e

Great app with a fatal flaw

I’m looking into alternative apps as I’m writing this review. This has not worked on my Apple Watch 7 with WatchOS 8. I tried everything that was suggested. I disabled App Lock, I deleted the app and reinstalled it on the phone and the watch, I tried several different authenticated accounts, etc. I don’t want to take my phone out of my pocket every single time I need to approve an Authenticator request. It’s easier for me to just switch to another Authenticator app. This worked a long while ago with my Apple Watch 4, but Microsoft is absolutely and ridiculously half-baked in all of their efforts for their products. I still use a lot of their products but am trying to find alternatives for every single one. Except for games, I’ll still use MS to play games on their OS.

2 months ago, Karebare777

WHY?

Why do I have to use my personal device and have push notifications on my PERSONAL device to verify who I am? not only do I think that this is a bold assumption that everybody has a smart device that they bring with them every day but I also find it to be an invasion of my personal space. I do not want to receive push notifications yet I have to in order to do my work. so what’s to happen when I forget my phone at home? I have done that many times! After installing this app I have received several spam emails from outside sources. That never happened before the authenticator app. I am very displeased. I truly feel that if work demands that I use my personal device to login to my employee accounts they should be paying my personal device!

1 year ago, Bguy10

Endless annoying loop

My college requires that I have this app. When I changed phones, all of a sudden I can’t login to the Authenticator app. It continues on a loop of “please login to the Authenticator app” as I’m trying to log into the authenticator app and I have no access to the app so it just makes no sense. One option is to enter the number on the app but there’s no number there and I have updated the app. The other option is to login on the Authenticator app, but there is no prompt asking me if it’s me logging in because I’m not a logged into the Authenticator app. This app is ridiculously annoying and I’ve been trying to work on this for like 30 minutes now and has already drained at least 25% of my battery and my phone is heating up. Update* Because this app is so faulty, I’m not even gonna use it anymore. Instead of using the authenticator app to verify my login, I opted to use the Call method. So the Microsoft company will give me a call to verify my login because I cannot deal with the authenticator app anymore. Please fix this, so you can improve the efficiency of the app, and reduce any aggravation this app may induce upon the consumer.

Description

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)provides a second layer of security. When enabled, during login after entering your password, 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 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 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 organization resources. You will need to register your device to your organization through the app and add your work or school account. Microsoft Authenticator 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.