Technology giant Google will be seen expanding its ability to use an Android smartphone as a physical two-factor authentication security key for iOS devices. A report has surfaced online that suggests the same. The feature was previously launched in April, however, at that point in time, it only worked with Chrome OS, macOS, and Windows 10.
However, the report, which first surfaced in 9to5Google, also mentions that because of a number of restrictions on the way iOS works, using an Android smartphone as a physical two-factor authentication key will work differently. So, instead of using Chrome to communicate with the device as we do in the PC versions. But in case of iOS, the Android smartphone will link up with Google’s Smart Lock app.
Once all of this is set up, whenever you log into your Google account on an iOS device the app will send a notification to the Android smartphone using Bluetooth. The users then have to confirm that they are the ones who are trying to log in on their Android smartphone. This information is then sent back to the iOS device and it allows the user to login.
We should mention that since security key support for iOS has been limited till now, adding the option of using an Android smartphone will make an enhanced security feature more accessible for a number of users.
There are people who use an iPad and own an Android smartphone instead of iOS. They would find this feature to be extremely useful for sure. But then, considering that a majority of Apple fans use iOS devices only, they may not see any use of it.
In case you are one among the former and would want to use the feature, it would be available on all Google accounts starting today.
In another piece of news that has surfaced online today, the company is ending the syncing of files between Google Photos and Google Drive so that the pictures which are backed up in the former do not appear in the latter automatically like it used to do before.
Google has announced that the change will be implemented next month onwards and that it has taken this step to simplify the user’s experience between Photos and Drive. The company made this announcement via a blog post, where it said, “We’ve heard feedback that the connection between these services is confusing, so next month, we’re making some changes to simplify the experience across Drive and Photos. This change is designed to help prevent accidental deletion of items across products.”
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