Twitter has not changed its mind: from March 20, 2023, that is to say next Monday, only paying subscribers will be able to continue to receive codes by SMS as a second factor of authentication. The announcement dates back to last month and the social network should not change its plans. If you had configured SMS as a second factor and you have not activated the Twitter Blue subscription since its launch in France, it is high time to modify the configuration of your account.
The message displayed in the app is disturbing, since it threatens users who do not switch before March 20 to lose all access to their Twitter account. The help of the social network is more reasonable, noting that these users will have no choice but to disable SMS authentication before they can access their account. By default, the service will force you to set another method to maintain a second authentication factor, which is a great security thing.
This other method is free for Twitter, unlike sending SMS. It can notably consist of going through an app capable of generating a temporary code as a second factor. If you use Apple products, you can use the iCloud keychain provided with the home systems, it’s free and very practical, since the code will be entered automatically. We’ve published a guide that details how to switch from SMS to iCloud Keychain.
Twitter: How to Enable Two-Factor Authentication with iCloud Keychain
Elon Musk is looking to save everywhere to save the ship from bankruptcy. We should expect to see features disappear beyond two-factor authentication by SMS, including paying for a subscription. For example, I received a notification that videos that were live streamed by the service will be deleted and that I need to back them up soon if I plan to keep them. This concerns videos recorded with fire Periscope (a dedicated app that the social network had launched in 2015) or with the Twitter Live function integrated into the official app fin 2016.
These two features disappeared over time, but the social network kept a copy of the recordings made at the time. Deleting these files is just another way to save a little more on hosting bills…
