Products · Product
Microsoft Authenticator
Raised as a usability problem by 40 people on Hacker News over 14 years (2013–2026), in 26 threads.
- 1
- 2
- 3
Every issue, all time, most people first
Forced to use Microsoft's authenticator app instead of standard TOTPUnreviewed
20132026- Option to use a third-party authenticator app is hidden2026-05-22
- Forced to use Microsoft's own authenticator app instead of standard TOTP2025-12-02
- Enrolling TOTP is hidden behind a small 'use another app' link, forcing users into Microsoft Authenticator2024-08-18
Forced through a use-another-app login step that does nothingUnreviewed
20132026- Setting up the app forces passwordless login whenever the phone has a lock, with no clear way to opt out2026-06-09
- Login history is empty and the passwordless sign-in default can't be changed in-app2026-05-24
- Login loops back to install the app that the login requires2025-12-02
Approval prompts show no history, so users can't verify approvalsUnreviewed
20132026- Prompts show no history, so users can't verify what they approved2026-05-24
- Approval prompt gives no useful information beyond asking to log in2023-06-08
- MFA popup gives too little information about what the user is approving2022-08-04
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 46 complaints
- Setting up the app forces passwordless login whenever the phone has a lock, with no clear way to opt out2026-06-09
- Login history is empty and the passwordless sign-in default can't be changed in-app2026-05-24
- Prompts show no history, so users can't verify what they approved2026-05-24
- Option to use a third-party authenticator app is hidden2026-05-22
- Enrollment keeps pushing users to install a system they rarely need2026-03-07
- Login loops back to install the app that the login requires2025-12-02
- Forced to use Microsoft's own authenticator app instead of standard TOTP2025-12-02
- A modal covers the 2FA code, forcing users to hide it to read the code2025-07-03
- Approval requests often fail to arrive, forcing repeated retries and slow logins2025-07-03
- The app's user interface and experience are very poor and frustrating to use2025-07-03
- Hardware key sign-in needs many needless extra steps, unlike the simple one-click phone approval2024-10-10
- Must tap each account to see its code instead of showing it immediately2024-08-18
- Forced through an "use another app" step on every login, and that option does nothing2024-08-18
- Scanning a QR code overwrites existing MFA accounts and locks users out2024-08-18
- Enrolling TOTP is hidden behind a small 'use another app' link, forcing users into Microsoft Authenticator2024-08-18
- Same error message shown for two different errors, confusing users2024-08-18
- Security-driven password rules and cryptic error messages make accounts hard to use2024-08-17
- Off-screen codes don't refresh, so scrolling shows stale codes that are wrong2024-08-17
- Adding a second account with the same label overwrites the existing one, locking users out2024-08-17
- Tapping "not me" silently locked user out of most systems, requiring an IT call2024-06-24
- Approval prompt gives no useful information beyond asking to log in2023-06-08
- Cannot delete a saved password; app repeatedly shows 'Cannot delete password'2023-02-28
- Microsoft's authenticator is an annoying variation of standard OTP codes2023-02-13
- After OS update, PIN entry shows full QWERTY keyboard instead of PIN pad, so user disabled PIN lock2023-01-18
- MFA popup gives too little information about what the user is approving2022-08-04
- Sign-in prompts don't show which service is requesting access2022-08-03
- Hides the link to get a normal OTP code, pushing users toward the vendor's app2022-03-30
- Teams sends user through repeated password and button prompts inside Authenticator, a loop back to itself2022-02-17
- Can't tell which service an MFA sign-in request is for2022-02-17
- Approving a push request needs the phone unlocked and PIN re-entered in the app, two PIN entries2022-02-16
- Push approval popups are annoying to use day to day, so the user switched away2022-02-16
- Users must repeatedly re-authenticate with MFA multiple times daily, and an extra PIN step increases approval fatigue2022-02-16
- Steers users to Authenticator, which is annoying when using many platforms at work2022-02-16
- Default settings flood users with repeated approval prompts, causing fatigue2022-02-16
- Enrollment fails with a useless generic error in Safari2022-02-16
- Clicking the obvious add account button loops back to sign-in and MFA setup repeatedly2021-10-12
- Must re-register MFA for every tenant and cannot transfer registrations to a new iPhone2021-10-12
- Option to turn off notifications is hidden in a menu, causing two years of frustration2021-09-21
- Office 365 approval prompt shows only approve or cancel, so users can't tell what they're approving2021-09-21
- Interface so terrible it makes users easy to mistake and hard to find things2021-05-18
- Approving sign-ins means switching apps and clicking approve, which is not really safer2021-05-07
- Forces the app and text message verification on every login unless hidden options are found2021-01-17
- Approval prompts show no info about the request, so users approve them without knowing the source2020-12-13
- Gets authenticator prompts at random times with no idea which app needs approval2020-08-01
- Extra email-entry step and 7-digit code are tedious, especially with the Xbox onscreen keyboard2019-07-11
- Changing verification options silently erases all trusted devices, locking the user out of their own gear2013-08-02