If you enable two-factor authentication on every service where it’s possible — and you use many of those services every day — you’ve probably felt the friction of manually entering 2FA codes. The usual process: open your authenticator app (Authy, Google Authenticator, etc.) on your phone, find the code, type it in. Do this several times a day and it becomes cumbersome. But there’s a better way.
You probably already know you should use a password manager for your service-specific passwords — long, random, unique passwords for each service, with only one master password to remember. What most people don’t know is that your password manager can likely handle 2FA as well.
Here’s how I do it. I use two applications to store my 2FA codes: Authy on my phone and 1Password on my computer. When setting up 2FA on a service, I scan the QR code into both Authy and 1Password, and also save the 2FA backup codes to 1Password.
- Authy gives me a backup of my 2FA codes if something goes wrong with 1Password
- 1Password gives me ease of use on my computer — when it auto-fills login credentials, it copies the 2FA code to the clipboard so I can paste it immediately
Simple as that. Instructions for setting this up in 1Password: support.1password.com/one-time-passwords
Happy account securing!
Header image by Vecteezy