Google backs Apple’s SMS OTP standard proposal

Posted on Apr 11, 2020

Google backs Apple’s SMS OTP standard proposal Apple’s proposal to standardize the format of SMS OTPs (one-time passcodes) moves to the WICG. Google is now backing a standard proposed by Apple engineers in January to create a default format for one-time passcodes (OTP) sent via SMS to users during the two-factor authentication (2FA) process. The standard, proposed by Apple engineers working on the Safari WebKit project, has now reached the status of official Web Platform Incubator Community Group (WICG) specification draft.

The proposal aims to fix some issues with the current state of SMS 2FA/OTP codes, all of which have different formats, unique per the websites sending the codes. In January, Apple engineers came up with the idea to structure these messages and have the same identical format for all SMS 2FA operations going forward.

Source: zdnet.com