Android O will help improve authentication of apps and services via SMS

When you have to verify your identify to sign up for an online service or app, sometimes you have to type in a verification code in your SMS messaging app on your smartphone. Now, there’s word that the upcoming Android O operating system will offer some improvements for SMS-based verification services.

Currently, if you have to use your SMS app to verify your identity, you either have to type in a code manually, or you can have an app read your messages so it can automatically find and enter the code. XDA-Developers reports that Android O will simplify this method with a new API that will allow applications to indicate that an SMS verification code should be available shortly.

The report says that when that happens, Android O will automatically check to see if any SMS messages have a specific 11 character code. When that code in the message shows up, it will be set to the application that needs it directly, instead of that app needing to read the SMS. It will also never show up in your SMS messages.

This new method will eliminate the need for users to wait for an SMS authentication message to appear, and also cut out the need to type it in manually within a certain time frame. We should learn a lot more about Android O and its features later this week as part of the 2017 Google I/O developer conference. We will be on the ground reporting first-hand on all the major news stories from the event, so stay tuned for our coverage beginning on Wednesday, May 17.