Twitter's 2FA Shake-Up: Non-Blue Subscribers Out Of Luck, Google Authenticator To The Rescue

Not everyone is happy with Elon Musk‘s decision to force non-Twitter Blue subscribers to find another method instead of text messages for two-factor authentication, or 2FA. However, for users of Apple Inc. AAPL devices, Alphabet Inc.‘s GOOG GOOGL Google Authenticator might be the key to avoiding this situation.

What Happened: Months after Musk revealed that Twitter was being scammed $60 million per year for SMS texts as some telecom operators were not being “super honest,” the site has announced that it will start charging users to secure their accounts via the 2FA method. 

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However, while users might find this sudden change uncomfortable, authenticator apps are better security-wise than SMS-based 2FA systems, reported Apple Insider. One of the most popular authentication apps is Google Authenticator. 

Therefore, for iPhone and iPad users who intend to stay ahead of the curve and want to set up Google Authenticator on their devices, here is the step-by-step guide: 

• Step I: Download Google Authenticator for free from the App Store. 
• Step 2: On your iPhone or iPad, go to Google Account. 
• Step 3: At the top, tap Security. 
• Step 4: Under “Signing in to Google,” tap 2-Step Verification. This step might require users to sign in.
• Step 5: Under “Add more second steps to verify it’s you,” find “Authenticator app” and tap Set Up.

Why It’s Important: Non-Twitter Blue subscribers will not be able to use text messages as their two-factor authentication method starting March 20. At that time, accounts with text message 2FA still enabled “will have it disabled.”

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