Microsoft Authenticator

Microsoft Corporation

About this app

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.

Optional Access permissions:
Microsoft Authenticator includes the following optional access permissions. All these require user consent. If you choose to not grant these optional access permissions, you can still use Microsoft Authenticator for other services that do not require such permission. For more information see https://aka.ms/authappfaq
Accessibility Service: Used to optionally support Autofill on more apps and sites.
Location: Sometimes your organization wants to know your location before allowing you to access certain resources. The app will request this permission only if your organization has a policy requiring location.
Camera: Used to scan QR codes when you add a work, school, or non-Microsoft account.
Read the contents of your storage: This permission is only used when you report a technical problem through the app settings. Some information from your storage is collected to diagnose the issue.

Ratings and reviews

Do not use if you can avoid it. While it may say it has your data backed up, it does not. You will lose access to your accounts if you use Microsoft authenticator. Oh by the way, Microsoft accounts will randomly drop their MFA tokens in this app, requiring you to set it up again with an SMS message (very secure by the way). This just happened to me, which would have made me lower my rating by at least 2 stars, if that were possible.

Non intrusive. Recommended. The autofill option sucks, though. It should work at the press of a given option on the (QUERTY) keyboard, but when you press what you want autofilled, the app prompts u to provide pin or fingerprint, approves, returns you to other screen, but then there's just blank lines - it does nothing as far as "autofill" is concerned. Blech. It's good as 2-factor id, and it DOES autofill passwords without issue at all - it just sucks at adding payment info.

Terrible/unintuitive. Very cumbersome to use. Often finding myself in catch 22 situations 99% of the time where it's asking me to provide a code to the app to proceed, that is also reportedly being provided by the app (and not showing). Many redundancies / oversights appreciated in an app that is supposed based around security and being able to access accounts safety. Very hard if impossible to make simple updates (e.g. switching to a new mobile or new mobile number / add a new work email).

What's new

We're always working on new features, bug fixes, and performance improvements. Make sure you stay updated with the latest version for the best authentication experience.