If you’re looking to protect your logins from unauthorized access, enabling two-factor authentication is a good idea. In case you’re unfamiliar, basically this sends users a one-time code or a prompt on their mobile device/computer in addition to logging in with your credentials, meaning that unless the hacker has your phone, your account will remain safe.
With Google, it seems that they have recently turned on two-factor authentication for Android Wear, meaning that you can now receive prompts on your smartwatch. Prior to this, Google offered users 3 options when protecting their Google account: a code generated by an app, an SMS sent to your phone, or a prompt on your phone to approve the sign-in process. However as Android Police has reported, it seems that the latter method is now working with Android Wear.
Given that Android Wear devices are generally paired with a smartphone, it seems that the prompts showing up on your phone can now be displayed on your smartwatch, so you will no longer have to fish your phone out of your bag or pocket to authenticate yourself. However according to Android Police, it seems that Google has yet to enable it for everyone and that it only seems to be working for some users for now.
We can only assume that this is because the feature is either being tested or rolled out slowly, but either way if you own an Android Wear device, an Android smartphone, and have two-factor authentication enabled for your Google account, this could be a security feature to look forward to.
Filed in . Read more about Android Wear, Google, Security, Smartwatch and Wearable Tech.