After Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey's account was hacked in September owing to a SIM swap fraud, the company has now added the ability for users to turn on two-factor authentication on the platform without using a phone number.
Twitter Safety team has just announced that users will now be able to enable two-factor authentication without the need for a phone number, starting sometime today.
Representational Image. Credits: Reuters
Until now, two-factor authentication using a phone number was a mandatory go-to on Twitter. There were options to use third-party authenticators like Google Authenticator, or a hardware authentication device, however, in order to enable it in the first place you had to give your phone number and confirm via SMS.
We're also making it easier to secure your account with Two-Factor Authentication. Starting today, you can enroll in 2FA without a phone number. https://t.co/AxVB4QWFA1
— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) November 21, 2019
However, as pointed out by 9To5Mac, this is currently not available if you are using a hardware authentication device. A Twitter engineer tweeted, "Currently we require you to have a second method along with security keys since the latter isn’t currently supported outside web. If you’d like to disable sms, you need to also have a mobile security app. We know this might not be ideal but we’re going to keep working on it!"
Hi! Currently we require you to have a second method along with security keys since the latter isn’t currently supported outside web. If you’d like to disable sms, you need to also have a mobile security app. We know this might not be ideal but we’re going to keep working on it!
— Jared Miller (@jcmi) November 21, 2019
Notably, while this feature is rolling out to all users, it is being enabled in phases and may not be available for all immediately.