Online Accounts 2025: Migrating to Proton Authenticator (Premium)

It's been a big year for Little Tech. But there's no company in this space that I trust more than Proton, so I was delighted that it announced Proton Authenticator, a 2FA app that works on all desktop and mobile platforms. As a Proton fan and a daily user of the Proton Pass password manager, I naturally set out to install and configure Proton Authenticator immediately, starting with my phones. And I am not surprised to say that I quickly moved to see whether I could replace the two authenticator apps I had been using with this solution.

That raises some questions, I know. So let me start with those.
? What is 2FA? And what is an authenticator app?
Most are at least passingly familiar with password managers, which should be called identity managers because they hold the key to much more than just our online accounts. If not, please check out Password Management Basics (Premium) for a refresher. 2FA is an additional layer of protection for your online accounts. The most common 2FA methods are email- and text message based, where you try to sign in to an online account, and it prompts you to provide this additional layer of protection by checking your email or texts to get a 6-digit code that you then enter as well. But it's more secure to use a dedicated authenticator app for 2FA codes. These apps are typically on your smartphone.

Good password managers offer two-factor authentication, or 2FA, capabilities in addition to whatever else they do. So it's possible to use a single app, your password manager, to autofill your username and password when you try to sign-in online and then use the app again to obtain a 2FA code when prompted. However you do it, app-based authentication is more convenient than email-based authentication, and it's more secure than text-based authentication. Passkeys, which are also supported by good password managers, are even more secure and even more convenient, but they're also less common. And so all of us will have some mix of authenticator app and passkey capabilities across the various accounts we access on PCs, phones, and other devices.

Consider a typical scenario. You open a web browser, desktop or mobile, and navigate to some website for which you have an account. If you've never signed in on this device, or perhaps if some time frame has transpired, the site will prompt you to enter your credentials, typically a username and password.

If you've configured a password manager browser extension (desktop) or app (mobile), it will appear automatically to autofill these credentials.

And if you've configured the account to require 2FA with an app, you'll be prompted to enter a code to complete the sign-in.

You get this code from your authenticator app or password manager. That app will require you to authenticate first, ideally using biometrics (facial or fingerprint recognition). And then you locate the account in the list of accounts, where you will find a time-limited six-digit...