Your Google Account can now be linked to the Authenticator app, making it easier to regain access to your accounts if you ever lose your smartphone.
Google Authenticator's Cloud Backup Feature: Is It Worth Using Without End-to-End Encryption?
With the meteoric rise of two-factor authentication, many people (and apps and services) have turned to authenticator apps to make verifying login credentials more manageable. But if you lose the device running the Authenticator app, those credentials become much harder to retrieve. That’s why Google is adding support for your Google Account.
The addition is largely due to user feedback, which Google says highlighted the potential lockout that can occur if someone’s phone is lost or stolen. In such a case, users often have to manually restore all of their connected accounts individually, then reconnect them with a new Authenticator to complete the 2FA setup. Syncing Authenticator with your Google Account acts as a secondary backup, saving you from having to set everything up again.
When the Authenticator app is connected to your Google Account, the one-time passwords (OTP) generated for your 2FA logins will be synced to your other connected devices. This means you can still access your accounts by finding the codes through your Google Account on another platform.
