Microsoft Authenticator Discontinues Apple Watch App

[MacRumors]

Microsoft Authenticator is no longer available on the Apple Watch following an update to the app released on the App Store today.

"This update removes Microsoft Authenticator from Apple Watch," reads the release notes for the update. Microsoft notes that in the Apple Watch's notification settings, you can still choose to mirror iPhone alerts from the app to your Apple Watch.

Primarily used for signing into Microsoft accounts with two-step verification enabled, the Microsoft Authenticator for iOS gained an Apple Watch companion app in 2018. Microsoft previously announced that the Apple Watch app would be discontinued in early 2023.

Those looking for an alternative two-factor authentication app on the Apple Watch can check out the Authenticator App by 2Stable and Authy by Twilio.

The Microsoft Authenticator app for Apple Watch joins a long list of third-party watchOS apps that have been discontinued over the last few years, either because of perceived redundancy or lack of user uptake. Other notable Apple Watch apps that have been discontinued include Twitter, Instagram, Target, Trello, Slack, Hulu, and Uber.

(Thanks, Aaron!)

Article Link: Microsoft Authenticator Discontinues Apple Watch App

 

[Robert.Walter]

LoL who needs MS Authenticator when a competitive authenticator is already built into iOS? (I suppose folks still stuck on PCs.) *

But ultimately I wonder if authenticators in general will be depreciated as the move to passwordless login increases.

*Edit. I forgot the /s.

 

[alexandr]

Not going to miss this particular one, but in general this tendency is meh. I used to be able to lock/unlock my car with the old BMW AW app, now I can tell how much fuel is left...

 

[TheLisnakFactor]

This sucks. I use the watch app all day with work. I have a bunch of Microsoft accounts that require the dumb app - and the watch app makes it so much easier as I just click an approve button over the iPhone app that requires me to open the app, FaceID and then click - and the worst part is its clicking in a different place on the screen every time because the notifications aren't always the same size.

Microsoft should bring this back - their added feature of number clicking can easily be implemented on the watch screen - the watch screens can display 3 2-digit numbers easily.

 

[xpxp2002]

LoL who needs MS Authenticator when a competitive authenticator is already built into iOS? (I suppose folks still stuck on PCs.)

But ultimately I wonder if authenticators in general will be depreciated as the move to passwordless login increases.

The Microsoft Authenticator provides seamless and passwordless authentication to personal Microsoft accounts, Azure, Office 365, and a number of other popular Microsoft services. That doesn't work natively with iOS (or Android, for that matter).

Being able to approve requests and even do number matching directly from the watch was very convenient.

 

[Mr. Dee]

Can't say I ever used it, but certainly one of the most used apps on my iPhone.
Third party apps on the Apple Watch have been a downer for me. They show notifications, but any attempt at interacting with them is cumbersome and unintuitive.

 

[gank41]

LoL who needs MS Authenticator when a competitive authenticator is already built into iOS? (I suppose folks still stuck on PCs.)

But ultimately I wonder if authenticators in general will be depreciated as the move to passwordless login increases.

We use all Microsoft Apps for our work (very large healthcare org) and have no choice but to use MS Authenticator.

 

[jakey rolling]

LoL who needs MS Authenticator when a competitive authenticator is already built into iOS? (I suppose folks still stuck on PCs.)

People who use their computers for work, perhaps?

 

[dtlee1974]

People who use their computers for work, perhaps?

Exactly. That post was another example of the "Well if I don't use it, no one does" attitude. I don't use Spotify for example, but I understand a lot of people do.

 

[tarimko]

IIRC the issue is that the Watch interface can't display the pictures from Authenticator to show geolocation of the auth attempt and that's about to be a requirement for Authenticator MFA prompts. If Apple added a UI option to show those geolocation maps they would probably make the Watch app available again.

 

[Someyoungguy]

Regression to the mean. As Garmins get smarter with music and EKG, the AW will get dumber because the cost of the original promise is just too high. Somewhere in the middle is workouts, payment, music, and fairly rudimentary safety monitoring (falls and arrhythmia) with multi-day battery life. I only wish I had known about this watch app. when I was using my AW4.

 

[votdfak]

Bitwarden + Duo... it's great

 

[StuBeck]

LoL who needs MS Authenticator when a competitive authenticator is already built into iOS? (I suppose folks still stuck on PCs.)

But ultimately I wonder if authenticators in general will be depreciated as the move to passwordless login increases.

...Authenticators are the way forward for passwordless logins. This is how I access my Office 365 account on my Mac for example, with the MS Authenticator app.

I get that MS = Bad to a lot of people, but your statement doesn't really make a lot of senes.

 

[Treq]

People who use their computers for work, perhaps?

I guess it depends on the work. In the film business you would be hard pressed to find a windows pc anywhere except as a prop on a show with a MS sponsorship. I’m sure there a few people who use them occasionally, but I rarely seem them. I, for one, never use any MS software outside of a gaming PC I built a few years ago just for games… and I’m considering converting it to Linux.

 

[macduke]

Wow, this is really dumb. This was probably the only app I used more on the Apple Watch than the iPhone version for the few annoying things I use that require Microsoft Authenticator to login.

 

[oliversl]

You can only backup Microsoft Authentication to a personal Hotmail account, let that sink in

 

[Danfango]

Fintech here. We are supposed to use MS authenticator for SSO but I refused unless they gave a dedicated handset for it and any apps they want me to carry around as I'm not using my personal phone for company business (I don't trust them not to **** it up). They refused that and said "everyone else is fine with it" (until they broke icloud photo sync apparently). So I ended up with a Yubikey instead. Much nicer solution and supports NFC with the iPhone as well.

The MS authenticator watch app was bloody terrible anyway.

 

[macduke]

LoL who needs MS Authenticator when a competitive authenticator is already built into iOS? (I suppose folks still stuck on PCs.)

Nobody chooses to use Microsoft Authenticator, lol! You need it even to login to your Microsoft account online. Even something like Xbox Live. And a lot of people have Office 365 for work to access email and use Office or One Drive. Nobody chooses this crap, it is chosen for you.

 

[xpxp2002]

You can only backup Microsoft Authentication to a personal Hotmail account, let that sink in

It backs up to iCloud storage.

 

[ackmondual]

Exactly. That post was another example of the "Well if I don't use it, no one does" attitude. I don't use Spotify for example, but I understand a lot of people do.

Yeah, not to be outdone by "if it's not an Apple product, then I don't care".

People who use their computers for work, perhaps?

This ^^
I've known quite a few people who wish they could use Apple computers at their workplace, but that's just not a reality for most of them. A few of them in IT even wish for this, but deep down, they know it's not the right choice (nm if the people who have to approve such a decision will go along with it).

 

[kingtj1971]

I guess it depends on the work. In the film business you would be hard pressed to find a windows pc anywhere except as a prop on a show with a MS sponsorship. I’m sure there a few people who use them occasionally, but I rarely seem them. I, for one, never use any MS software outside of a gaming PC I built a few years ago just for games… and I’m considering converting it to Linux.

No offense, but the film business is an outlier. I worked in I.T. for a company responsible for creative media and design work for many years. But even in their situation, the people doing the back-end office work like your Human Resources and Finance people were on Windows PCs. Nearly all manufacturing businesses are predominantly Windows-based, because the special-purpose applications that run their shop equipment almost never have Mac support.

Linux has a solid place on the server side. I've worked at places with combinations of Macs and Windows PCs who used Linux-based servers as "appliances" to handle things like the corporate anti-virus software deployment and monitoring. But aside from software programmers and hobbyist/tinkerer types, I don't see much Linux on people's laptops or desktop PCs. It's usually sort of a compromise or at least a bigger learning curve when you get more advanced with using and configuring it.

 

[bluespark]

This is too bad. The Apple Watch is the perfect platform for authenticator apps, since it’s attached to you. It would almost always be easier to authenticate through the Watch than through the phone.

 

[tobefirst ⚽️]

Third party apps on the Apple Watch have been a downer for me. They show notifications, but any attempt at interacting with them is cumbersome and unintuitive.

Agreed. In my experience this is true even of companies that have top notch Mac apps. And if most of them are garbage then, in my mind, it has to be something that Apple is doing to limit it.

 

[msackey]

This sucks. I use the watch app all day with work. I have a bunch of Microsoft accounts that require the dumb app - and the watch app makes it so much easier as I just click an approve button over the iPhone app that requires me to open the app, FaceID and then click - and the worst part is its clicking in a different place on the screen every time because the notifications aren't always the same size.

Microsoft should bring this back - their added feature of number clicking can easily be implemented on the watch screen - the watch screens can display 3 2-digit numbers easily.

I wonder why Microsoft removed that capability. We use Duo at work (required by the institution) and it's so easy to just accept the authentication request on the Watch.

 

[CarAnalogy]

Can't say I ever used it, but certainly one of the most used apps on my iPhone.
Third party apps on the Apple Watch have been a downer for me. They show notifications, but any attempt at interacting with them is cumbersome and unintuitive.

Mirrored notifications are that way. If companies make the investment to make an accompanying app they can be a lot better. Not sure who’s really to blame here. The companies for not investing the resources or Apple for making it difficult.