Image credit – Android Police
Two-factor authentication is a pretty popular method of protecting one’s account these days. For those unfamiliar with how it works, usually once your username and password has been entered, a one-time generated code will be sent to your phone to verify who you say you are, thus preventing accounts from being compromised based purely on password alone.
Instagram has long supported regular two-factor authentication where the security codes are sent via SMS, but the good news is that if you’d rather not rely on SMS which can be tricky if you’re using a different SIM card while traveling, you’ll be pleased to learn that Instagram is now supporting two-factor authentication apps as an alternative.
In case you’re unfamiliar with such apps, basically they sort of serve as alternatives to SMS which might be better compared to SMS, because like we said sometimes you’re traveling with a different SIM and you might not receive the SMS as a result. There are several different authentication apps out there, such as Google Authenticator.
However there are other options such as Authy or the LastPass Authenticator (LastPass also makes password management tools). The support for two-factor authentication apps should already be live so make sure you’ve got the latest version of Instagram installed and you should be good to go.