Twitch has supported two-factor authentication for a long time, but the company went out of its way to make it as inconvenient as possible. You were either limited to insecure SMS messages or had to use Authy and its proprietary 2FA API. Thankfully, Twitch has announced that it's launching support for any 2FA authentication apps, like any web service should. The streaming service even entices you with six exclusive emotes.

Two-factor authentication can only be set up when you verified the email address tied to your account. Once that's done, head to Security and Privacy in settings and select Set up two-factor authentication. Make sure you do that on a desktop computer — the app will just allow you to set up SMS authentication. You'll then have to enter your phone number to receive a 7-digit security code. Once you've copied it, you'll see the authenticator QR code that you can scan with an authenticator app of your choosing, like the open-source andOTP or the excellent offline password manager MYKI.

As soon as you've got 2FA set up, you'll find the six "exclusive emotes" visible in the tweet above in the Unlocked section of the chat. It's great to see that Twitch is finally stepping up its security game — general 2FA support is much more convenient than Authy or SMS only.

Source: Twitch