Products · Pattern or everyday thing
SMS-based authentication
Raised as a usability problem by 5 people on Hacker News over 10 years (2016–2025), in 5 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads in the last 5 years.
Every issue, all time, most people first
Travellers without mobile service can't receive codes and get locked outUnreviewed
20162026- Users abroad don't receive SMS codes, so they can't complete login2025-07-30
- Codes arrive too late abroad, or go to a SIM that isn't active while travelling2020-11-12
- Users travelling abroad without working mobile service can't receive codes and get locked out2016-07-26
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 5 complaints
- Users abroad don't receive SMS codes, so they can't complete login2025-07-30
- Codes arrive too late abroad, or go to a SIM that isn't active while travelling2020-11-12
- Paying via SMS is awful to use, forcing a clumsy checkout process2018-09-14
- Users complain autocorrect changes their input and typos aren't recognized2017-11-29
- Users travelling abroad without working mobile service can't receive codes and get locked out2016-07-26