Well that sucks. Use this every day, been super useful for me, managing a ton of M365 accounts. WHY do Microsoft constanatly cancel useful features? It's like they don't understand how real people work or use their products.
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Microsoft Authenticator App for Apple Watch to Be Discontinued in January
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Looks like the issue is one of screen size and a move to change authentication from "authorize" to a security challenge where you match the number the app is giving you.
And anyone comparing MS to Google regarding cancelling projects is a bit misguided.
And anyone comparing MS to Google regarding cancelling projects is a bit misguided.
WTF this makes no sense. In the list of discontinued apps at the end, most of those did not need a watch app in the first place. But this, this is stupid. I use this all the time. Maybe not all the time but it was damn handy when I needed it.
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Well since we are using a square watch with plenty of screen space I don’t see why that’s a problem. If it were the Google watch where you can only see two characters dead center of the display….it would still work. No reason to discontinue this except to save Microsoft money I guess.
Edit: Also I’m pretty sure it already does this. It’s been a while but I do remember picking the number from my watch.
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dreinidaho
macrumors newbie
Not gonna lie, that really sucks. One of the reasons I liked Microsoft Authenticator was due to being able to acknowledge push notifications via Apple Watch.
kerr
macrumors 65816
Iconoclysm
macrumors 68040
Same. I probably use this more than any other tool throughout my entire day - signing in over and over again into different powershell modules. All this is going to do is force me to find another method of authentication with the watch.
Iconoclysm
macrumors 68040
Because the quantity of apps means nothing?
Iconoclysm
macrumors 68040
I don't have the watch app installed and I'm able to still acknowledge MS Authenticator notifications on my watch. I think this is a non-issue.
Danfango
macrumors 65816
Knowing a few people at Microsoft, this is probably being canned because the only dudes who know how it worked were accidentally laid off in the October 2022 staffing cuts.
WiiDSmoker
Suspended
99% of the wearers use it for tracking steps and various health and safety activities.
Skeptical.me
macrumors 6502a
Iconoclysm
macrumors 68040
No, it is not that issue. The app already does this with personal MS accounts. The issue is that you can't enable App Lock and use the watch at the same time.
Skeptical.me
macrumors 6502a
I use it for time, heart related stuff, steps, sleep, and setting alarms about 5 times a day lol
Iconoclysm
macrumors 68040
Without the ability to show TOTPs it was always pointless to begin with. Anything else can be done with just notifications.
It was fiddly but when it worked it was great having the watch let me in. However, their latest security level requires us to enter a number AND correctly click the correct button and that means a phone for now. As it is in the iphone app, microsoft's apple watch app was poorly designed. I like "Duo" the buttons are better. And, after someone has entered a correct code the app should just recognize this and end the charade (making me choose between "yes" and "no"). If it's "no", then I'm unlikely to enter any number code, much less the correct one.
It worked great for me, and so much easier than getting my phone out, unlocking it, then approving the auth. I'm pretty ticked off they're removing it.
TheMacDaddy1
macrumors 6502a
Easier than lifting my arm and pressing "Approve" 10 times a day? My phone is often in my pocket or not right next to me.