Eric
Last night, a member of reddit posted a new setting that he saw within his Google account settings, asking him if he would like to sign-in with his phone. It seems that Google is testing a feature that would allow for easily two-factor authentication for compatible phones. Security!
Redditor rp1226 agreed to Google’s test and added his email under the account that was linked with his Nexus 6P. Then, when signing in to his Google account on a desktop or laptop, his phone would light up and ask to be unlocked. The same would be said on the screen, and once unlocked through PIN, password, pattern, or fingerprint, all he had to do was tap and agree that it was indeed him trying to log-in to his account.
It seems that Google has built-in a few failsafes into this system, like if the phone is out of battery or out of data coverage. Users can just opt to log-in with their password instead. Google mandates that this feature will only be functional with a screen lock so people cannot steal your Google account if you lose your phone.
Are you saving a lot of time this way? Probably not. Is it the most secure form of two-factor authentication? Nope. But, this could be an easy way to encourage people to password protect their phones, as well as giving them a bit of that behind-the-scenes Google magic. No clue when or if we will see this roll out to more smartphones, but we will be keeping our eyes open if it opens widely to the public.
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