hello everyone and welcome back this is paul from techlink and i've been getting a lot of
comments from you guys on some of my previous videos related to the google authenticator app
with all kind of questions regarding the usage of the app the secret key transfer and recovery
ways and so on and in this video i would like to show you how to set up and use the
google authenticator app and hopefully answer all of your questions so make sure to watch
through the whole video to find out everything you need to know about google authenticator
and the two-factor authentication now for the purpose of this video i'm gonna be using my
android phone but this can be done on every mobile device from tablets to iphones and ipads
it's going to look exactly the same so don't worry if you're not using the same device as i am so the
first thing that you want to do is head over to the play store and search for authenticator
now what you're going to see is there are a lot of authenticator apps
which serve for the exact same purpose but we're going to use the google authenticator
mainly because it's like the standard app to use for two-factor authentication so go ahead
and download the app once you've downloaded google authenticator open it and you notice that it's a
really simple app it's not that complicated to use now the first time you open it it will ask
you to either scan a qr code or enter a setup key which will take us to the next step how to set up
a two-factor authentication on one of our accounts i'm gonna use my instagram account to give you
an example on how to do it since i don't have the 2fa activated for that account so if i tap
on the icon of my profile picture and tap these three lines at the top right corner of the screen
and select settings we're going to see a security tab and this is what we are looking for no matter
what account you are using whether it's an app or website the two-factor authentication will
be mainly located within the settings and the security tab so if i select security we're going
to see there's a two-factor authentication option and if i tap on that they will ask us to choose
how we want to receive the security codes either to an authentication app or text message
but for the purpose of this video we're going to use the app also instagram will check
if i have one and will automatically create an account within the authenticator but
most of the times you will get a secret key or qr code which you need to insert in the app so
if i toggle this switch on and click next and press ok to save key you will see an account
has been added in the google authenticator app which will generate a new six digit code every
30 seconds or so which you need to copy and go back to your app and insert it in there
and now your two-factor authentication is on so every time you log in from a device they
don't recognize they will ask you for one of these codes in addition to your password
and now for the most important part of this video make sure to save your secret key or your qr code
i can't stress this enough like i said before most of the times when you activate the 2fa
you will get a secret key or qr code which you should save and keep somewhere safe before you
even finish the setup process now as you've probably noticed if you paid attention to
the video we haven't received a secret key during the setup of the qfa on my instagram
account so what you need to do in this case is go back to settings and select security
and tap on two-factor authentication and you will see there's a new tab with additional methods to
log in securely so if we select that we're going to see a backup calls tab which will give us
five recovery codes which can only be used once in case our phone gets lost or we accidentally delete
the google authenticator up these work slightly different meaning that we won't use them to set
up a new 2fa account within the authenticator app but we are going to use them as a recovery
way in case we lose access to our account so they are just as important as the secret key
as they will help you regain access to your account so make sure to keep them safe
write them down take a screenshot whatever you do just make sure you save them for future use
and to show you how it would work in real life let's say i want to log in to my instagram after
i've already logged out i'm going to be asked for that two-factor authentication that six-digit code
so i'm gonna head over to the authenticator app and copy that key and insert it in the app
and as you can see i managed to log in back to my account another thing worth mentioning
is that these codes will only work for your instagram account so for every other website
or app like twitter or facebook or your investment accounts or whatever whichever
service that supports two-factor authentication you will have to repeat the same process again
activate it from the security settings and use the secret key or qr code to add a new qfa account in
the google authenticator app and with this i think i managed to cover everything you need to know
on the setup and usage of the google authenticator app but if you have any other questions let me
know in the comment section also if you would like to find out more about the authenticator up check
out my other videos where i talk about how you can transfer your 2fa account from one device
to another or how to fix some of the issues you might encounter and that's it for this video if
you enjoyed it please give it a thumbs up or share it with someone you think might benefit from it
and if you would like to see some similar tutorials please subscribe to the channel
and like always thank you for watching and i'll see you next time