Re: Google will no longer send SMSs with six digit codes for verification

Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> wrote:

Frank Slootweg wrote:
 

AFAICT, "an SMS message with a QR image" is a figment of your
imagination!

 
And if one arrived on your phone, what would you "scan" the QR code
with?  They don't work in a mirror.

Maybe Frank didn't think of MMS, an enhancement to SMS, can send images
within messages.

Well, Google could embed some new feature into Chrome to handle web
sites presenting a QR code for login verification.  Chrome would
silently connect home to your Google account to send the QR code back to
Google.  On a smartphone, isn't the Chrome web browser always logged
into your Google account?  On a desktop, the Chrome web browser is also
likely logged into your Google account.  A later version of Chrome could
be the new app guessed by Carlos.  Oh goody, to log into Gmail mandates
you use the Chrome web browser.  I wouldn't put Google beyond enforcing
that requirement to get more of the stubborn amongst to move to Chrome.

Frank doesn't like my [second] guess that Google will move to using
Google Prompts, a communications venue that already exists on Android
phones, SMS is getting dropped by Google, but neither Frank nor Carlos
have come up with an alternative communications venue.  None of us know
now what Google may implement later, but reusing existing functionality
seems more likely than creating a whole new communications venue, and
another new app solely for login verification (don't we already have
that with authenticator apps?). 

Could be Google, as Carlos puts it, will come out with a new app we need
to install to scan the QR code to send it back to your Google account to
complete login verification.  However, the Google App already on the
smartphone connects back to your Google account, and it has a camera
icon, too.  In addition, to get Google Prompts on iOS (iPhones), those
users can get the Google App from Apple's Play Store.  Those users would
have to create a Google account; however, if they're using Gmail that
will move to a modified security theater then they already have a Google
account.