Microsoft Authenticator App Gets Launched on August 15th, 2016

On August 15^th of this year, Microsoft will release the new “Microsoft Authenticator” app in all mobile app stores. This new app combines the best parts of our previous authenticator apps into a new app which works with both Microsoft accounts and Azure AD accounts

As many of you know, Microsoft had separate authenticator apps for Microsoft account and Azure AD for quite a while – the Azure Authenticator for enterprise customers and the Microsoft account app for consumers. With the new Microsoft Authenticator, they’ve combined the best of both worlds, into a single app. This supports enterprise and consumer scenarios.

Here are some of the new benefits which you will accrue in the app updates:

User experience refresh. We’ve made the app experience incredibly simple, while maintaining the maximum level of security.

Best in breed MFA experience through one-click push notifications. You only need to click the “approve” button in the notification to complete your login. (And in most cases, you won’t even need to open the app to complete the approval.)

Support for wearables. You can use an Apple Watch or Samsung Gear device to approve MFA challenges.

Finger prints instead of passcodes. We’ve added support fingerprint based approvals on both iPhone and Android.

Certificate-based authentication. Support for enterprise customers to sign in through certificates instead of passwords.

This new app will be delivered as an update to Azure Authenticator. Existing accounts you already have in your Azure Authenticator app will be automatically upgraded. Also, users of Microsoft account Android app will get a message prompting them to download the new app.

Now that Microsoft has finished consolidating all data into a single code base, they are expecting to deliver new improvements at a very rapid, improved pace.