If you’re big into two-factor authentication — and in this merciless rag-tag world of the internet, you dang well should be — keeping an app like Authenticator within easy reach is a smart move.
As the name should already tell you, Authenticator is a desktop 2FA code generator for Linux desktops, like Ubuntu.
Using it you can generate 2FA tokens for over 500 well-known providers, including Github, Gitlab, Twitter, Facebook, Google, Dropbox, and Twitch.
This week a new version of Authenticator arrived. It adds a wealth of welcome improvements. Read on to find out more!
Authenticator 3.32 Released
The newest release of Authenticator, version 3.32, adds a smattering of new features and improvements to what was an already useful client.
Changes in Authenticator 3.32 include:
- Use Provider service website favicon where possible
- Option to manually set an image for a provider if no icon found
- Ability to add a custom provider
- Night Light integration (auto-dark mode)
- Enable/disable app password without global reset
- Backup/restore support
- GNOME Shell Search Provider w/ copy pin option
- ‘andOTP’ support
- ‘Responsive’ interface
The Settings window is also a touch different in this version, gaining three distinct sections:appearance, behaviour and backup. These are used to house settings relating to — cue Joey to state the obvious — appearance, behaviour and backup respectively.
New features planned for future releases include support for Steam, and implementing support for being able take photos of QRCodes.
Install Authenticator 3.32
Authenticator is free, open-source software. Source code is available on GitLab, and pre-built packages are available to install from Flathub, a Flatpak app store.
Authenticator on Flathub
You can also use the command line to install the app (assuming you have added the Flathub repo) by running this command:
flatpak install flathub com.github.bilelmoussaoui.Authenticator
If you’re an existing user of Authenticator you are advised make a backup before upgrading to the new release.
Finally, I should note that Authenticator is designed for the stock GNOME Adwaita theme.