Google to introduce QR-based login for Gmail, will soon stop sending SMS Codes | Technology News
With tech giants embracing passkeys in favour of the not-so-trustworthy text-based passwords, it looks like Google is planning to ditch SMS authentication codes in favour of QR codes. According to a recent report by Forbes citing “privileged conversation with Google insiders”, the publication claims that the tech giant will be moving away from SMS-based authentication methods for Gmail sometime later this year.
In a statement to CNET, Ross Richendrfer, the head of security and privacy public relations at Google confirmed the change and said that the tech giant will be reimagining how it verifies phone numbers by asking users to scan a QR code. This is much more secure than the current two-factor authentication method via SMS, which requires users to type in a code after entering their password.
With scammers getting creative and coming up with a new scheme every other day, it looks like Google wants to eliminate network operators as the point of breach. The tech giant says that fraudsters have been engaging in SIM-swapping and a new type of scam called “traffic pumping”, where fraudsters try to use online service providers to send a large number of SMS messages to numbers in their control and eventually get paid when any of these messages are delivered.
However, it won’t be the first tech giant to ditch SMS-based authentication. In the last few years, X (formerly Twitter), Signal, Apple and Microsoft have ditched SMS-based authentication in favour of more secure alternatives like one-time codes generated by authenticator apps.
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