We secure our online accounts by using passwords and since those can be hacked, it led people to come up with a way to verify that it is you before logging you in.
Thus the birth of 2 factor authentication which when you set up and use later on, normally sends a text message to your phone when you want to login to your account. This system has had a major flaw: These texts can be intercepted by hackers and this means companies had to come up with another way to make 2 factor authentication secure for its users.
Google has a way to make 2 factor authentication secure and easy to use without the use of texts and I’ve only started using the new system recently. They had revamped their two step verification in February and now they want it to be mainstream.
“Starting next week, 2-SV SMS users will see an invitation to try Google prompts when they sign in,” Google said on the blogpost. The new system will give users a way to verify their signings as shown above instead of the previous system that used SMS codes.
Users will be asked whether to keep it enabled or not, but it would be wise to opt-in on this new way of using 2 step verification.
The new Google 2 factor verification prompts will only be shown to previous 2 factor verification SMS users and security key users are unaffected by this change. For it to work, a data connection is required. In addition, if a user opts out of it, they will receive follow up notifications to switch after 6 months.
The new update will be rolled out gradually to all G Suite editions for all users.
