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I use 2-factor auth on my Google account. When I signed into a new device today, Google sent (to my phone) not a code in a text message. Instead a screen appeared saying Yes or No. It worked okay.
I was wondering if this was a text message or what. It wasn't in my text message history later. It wasn't an email and it wasn't in my browser history either. What was it?
When you login to most places using 2-factor, they send a text message with a code. Then you type the code into the device where you are trying to login.
It was a push notification to the to the Google app (most likely gmail) on your phone.
^ this.
Just a push notification via mobile app communication. You didn't see it in your email or SMS because it didn't use those specific services/protocols.
For the most part - your mobile apps (or any app - web, local, etc.) can be setup to establish a persistent communication with a server. In this case, your phone is setup to wait for query/responses from Google. As with most notifications, you can certainly turn them off or adjust them so you're not getting bombarded with all types of notifications.
In other cases, when you log in to Google, it does send the code. I don't know why with me, it sent that push thing I mentioned.
Google has different MFA options. I don't recall if you can select which one or if it does it randomly. I've seen the yes/no pushes and I've also gotten the ones where I'm presented with a number and have to pick that number among two others on the authenticating device...
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