Two-step verification or two-factor authentication (TFA) is something that you really need to enable in all your devices and your various accounts. There are also apps that offer this service but it can be quite inconvenient for some users. Google will soon be making life easier and a bit more secure (at least gadgets-wise) as their Google Prompt feature will be available on all smartphones that you’re signed in. Soon you’ll get the “Is this you?” message on all your devices, just to be sure.
XDA Developers shares that Google Prompt is actually not something new and has been around for a few years. It’s the thing that pops up asking “Is this you?” when you are signing in from another device. It’s actually more secure than using SMS as a verification method because it’s not tied to a phone number but to your device directly. During this time when numbers can be cloned and all, SMS is not the most reliable.
Previously, Google Prompt was only enabled on individual devices on your account. But for people who have several devices under one Google account, that can be quite annoying. Now they’re enabling it on all “eligible phones” as long as you’re signed in to your account. So if you sign in to any app where you’ve enabled 2FA, you can use any of your devices to verify that it is indeed you.
However what they mean by “eligible” device is still not very clear. It seems to be working on various devices from different brands like Google, LG, HTC, even Huawei. You can check all your Android devices and see if Google Prompt is already available there. And if you’re not yet doing 2FA, you should start doing so today especially if you regularly sign in to a lot of things.
Google says your phones that don’t get Google sign-in prompts will start getting them by July 7. But it looks like they have already started rolling it out to some devices already.
