Google Authenticator Remove Its Main Feature image
  • Rosa Edwards
  • 25 Jul 2022

Google Authenticator Remove Its Main Feature

During the years of its existence, the Google Authenticator app continues to be one of the main security tools on the market. Users can pick the app from the store or just enable it on the phone. Yet, it does not offer too many features. Recently Google removed the “Click to reveal PIN” option.

In May 2022, Google released its feature called “Click to reveal PIN”. Although the feature was minor, it allowed you to hide the codes of 2-factor identification from your view, so you can only see the codes you want to implement. It was nice to have this option since the 2FA codes are changing every half of the minute. Yet, Google decided to remove it. Last week, this option was gone after users updated the app.

This happened in the 5.20R4 update of the Authenticator version. According to the official reports from 9to5Google tracker, apart from this change, the new update does not contain anything else. Meanwhile, in the listing of features that the app contains on the Play Store, there is a “storage of secret values” encryption.

This feature was helpful in the specific case of strangers around you. If you wanted to use your PIN but were not alone and you were worried that someone could spy on you, you could hide the code. Yet, the codes are changing every 30 seconds, so you probably did not need to do anything. There was no official comment on this case from Google. We don’t know why it took so much effort to shut down one of the minor features.

 The last update of the app was on July 14. Probably, you already have it on your phone. We hope that Google will explain its decision in the future and reveal more interesting features to come to its app. This minor feature was the first that was announced in 2 years.

What do you think about the app? Do you use it on your phone? Share your thoughts about it in the comments below.

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