Authy Is Sunsetting Its Desktop Authenticator Apps on March 19, 2024

Authy, the two-factor authentication (2FA) service, says its desktop apps for macOS, Windows, and Linux will reach end-of-life on March 19, 2024.

authy desktop
Twilio, the company that owns Authy, revealed the decision on Wednesday in a updated support article. It did not say whether Authy Desktop apps will stop working after this date or simply no longer receive updates, but the company confirmed that its mobile apps will continue to be maintained.

As one of only a few third-party desktop 2FA code generator apps on Mac, the loss of Authy Desktop is likely to disappoint users who got used to signing into 2FA-protected accounts from their computer rather than having to get out their phone, where most 2FA apps usually live.

For users in this position that own a Mac powered by Apple silicon, Authy suggests downloading the iOS version of the app to their computer. Otherwise, Authy recommends using the mobile version instead, or switching to a different authenticator app. The bad news is that anyone who wants to switch to another 2FA app entirely will have to disable 2FA on all of their stored accounts first, because Authy lacks an export feature.

At the beginning of the year, Authy said that it was shutting down its desktop app in August 2024, so it has brought forward its decision to sunset the app by several months. The company said its decision to kill its desktop versions was made to "streamline our focus and provide more value on existing product solutions for which we see increasing demand."

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Top Rated Comments

OS X Dude Avatar
15 months ago
1Password or iCloud Keychain ftw. We use 1Password at work purely for the flexibility of Shared Vaults.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ahmoda Avatar
15 months ago
I'm using iCloud keychain as a verification code generator app and it works perfectly and across all apple devices.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
bsolar Avatar
15 months ago
It should be possible to export the keys from Authy without having to reset every account.

It's not exactly a straightforward process, but I did it successfully years ago. It requires accessing Desktop Authy through its debug port and exporting the raw data.

The GIST documentation ('https://gist.github.com/gboudreau/94bb0c11a6209c82418d01a59d958c93').

A YouTube video guide ('//www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7ruB_uFcj4').

Note: for my migration I did not generate the QR-Codes as described, I simply manually copy-pasted the security tokens from the raw data into my new 2fa tool.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
6787872 Avatar
15 months ago

OTP on a desktop that contains your passwords is not MFA.

Of course you can. You know you haven't refuted what I said, right?
here comes the 'Ackchyually ('https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/ackchyually-actually-guy')' crowd.

it's better than no 2FA at all.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
3530025 Avatar
15 months ago
I'm using Authy for quite a long time. Great thing! I did not know desktop app even existed. iOS app is all right and together with shared clipboard, it really not a big deal to open the app on my iPhone.

Also I don't think it's good security-wise to have both factors accessible from one device. Imagine virus getting into your macOS - your 2FA is useless now, because attacker got access to both factors at once.

Authy + Bitwarden. Best solution. It's free and it's cross-platform. You are not locked to single ecosystem and you can access your credentials from any major system you need. Oh and you can also selfhost Bitwarden if you are into that and want to take it step further, away from cloud.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Torley Avatar
15 months ago
I used Authy, but it was disappointing for awhile. You couldn't easily organize and archive accounts, so it ended up looking like a janky mess. Too much time was spent finagling things around.

More elegant solution — migrate to 1Password, which has a built-in authenticator ('https://support.1password.com/one-time-passwords/'). The autofill works really nicely on the whole. And it continues to have healthy multiplatform support, including macOS desktop. It's made security hygiene a lot more user-friendly.

1Password's overall flow is much more elegant than, say, LastPass and others. Especially with v8, they've really paid attention to scaling the storage of many passwords and other related secure data.

YES like @OS X Dude said, 1Password operationally makes it SUPER-SIMPLE to share, one-time or longer, even with those who don't have a 1Password account. Shared Vaults are great for families and businesses alike — just drag-and-drop and it's there!
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)