There is no longer any support for the Microsoft Authenticator app on the Apple Watch. However, the reasons remain unknown.
On Apple’s App Store, there’s a slightly amusing explanation for the most recent update to one of the best authenticator apps available: “With this update, Microsoft Authenticator is no longer available on Apple Watch.”
The message also states that one may still use the notification settings to mirror notifications from his/her iPhone to the Apple Watch. However, the truth remains that wearable technology users now need help to authenticate their logins due to the elimination of the specific app.
Microsoft Authenticator is one of the most popular authenticator apps. It can add an extra layer of security to the users’ accounts and devices through multi-factor authentication (MFA) or two-factor authentication (2FA).
In 2018, the Apple Watch app came out, making it possible to log in without having to unlock the iPhone.
Microsoft first hid the fact that the app would stop working in December 2022 by putting it in a FAQ section on the company’s support website and saying something vague like “there will be no companion app for watchOS because it’s not compatible with Authenticator’s security features.”
The IT behemoth has yet to explicitly say what these security measures are or why watchOS cannot use them.
But this is far from the first significant piece of software to be removed from Apple’s smartwatch. Pokemon Go, Slack, Uber, and Instagram all stopped platform support for their apps.
People only appeared to be utilising the applications infrequently in many circumstances, with notifications and alerts from their iPhone counterparts sufficing for many.
However, a number of people on Reddit have pointed out that the Microsoft Authenticator app for Apple Watch has been unreliable for years. There are, however, a couple of two-factor app alternatives in the form of Authenticator App by 2Stable and Twilio Authy.
“One thing to note, however, is that the Microsoft Authenticator app itself is the only app that supports approving enterprise logins for Microsoft 365 and Azure. This means that if you’re using these Microsoft services in an enterprise environment, you can’t fully ditch your reliance on the Microsoft Authenticator app,” commented 9to5Mac.