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Comment by vel0city | Hacker News Reader

> I do not care for laptops except when necessary and have come to loathe my phone.

Good news then, this also works on desktops, even ones without cameras or touch sensors. That's a part of why I mentioned "typing in my PIN". But sure, keep moving goalposts. Maybe next you'll tell me real computers don't have numbers on the keyboards or something.

> In general, I do not have a "device currently in my hands" and having to pick one up and unlock it is annoying.

I agree, which is why SMS sucks so much for 2FA. Having to have my phone with me with signal just to auth into something sure is annoying, I don't know why anyone would prefer that compared to just using the authenticator physically inside their computer.

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"Good news then, this also works on desktops, even ones without cameras or touch sensors."

All of the 2FA methods forced on me by my employer and most online services that require it require a phone app. So no, it doesn't work on a desktop.

This is a discussion about passkeys. You've now shifted the goalposts again to "only the 2FA options my employer allows".

Which, while I can't speak to your specific employer, tons are moving to support passkeys. Largely because forcing these apps suck and SMS sucks.

"This is a discussion about passkeys."

No, that's not the way it went. I joined the conversation, such as it is, to respond to the guy who said "SMS is an ugly user experience" to say no, it's fine.

I haven't shifted any goalposts: I've basically just reiterated to you that I think it's fine and better than the alternatives. Not a word about passkeys from me.

"SMS is an ugly user experience"...compared to passkeys.

It's not fine that SMS messages get delays. It's not fine that it requires a cell phone plan. It's not fine that it requires you to have cell service. Its not fine because it's insecure.

So many times I've had coworkers and clients frustrated they are pushed to letting their employer force SMS 2FA on their personal numbers. When they could just use passkeys these days baked into their work machines and not have those problems.

Settle down. I responded to the statement "SMS is an ugly user experience and more importantly is expensive" to point out that from my perspective, neither one of those things is true. The "user experience" is fine and to me, the cost is zero.

Then you decided, for some unknown reason, to jump in and... do something, but I'm not sure what. Seems like you're trying to convince me that my own view of my own experience is wrong somehow but — and one might think this would be obvious, but apparently not to you — that's not gonna work.

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