An Authy alternative with no phone number and no account
Authy, now Twilio Authy, is free and syncs your codes between devices through an account tied to your phone number. Its desktop apps closed in March 2024, and it still has no way to export your accounts.
What Authy does well
- Your codes follow you: install Authy on a new phone, confirm your number, enter your backup password, and everything comes back.
- Several devices can hold the same accounts at once.
- Backups are encrypted with a password you choose before they reach Twilio.
What Otter does differently
- No phone number and no account. Otter never learns who you are, so there is nothing about you to leak. In July 2024, Twilio confirmed that phone numbers linked to Authy accounts had been collected through an unsecured endpoint.
- No cloud. Your keys stay on your phone, and the only copy that ever leaves it is a backup file you export yourself, encrypted with your passphrase.
- A backup that depends on nobody: one file, which you can keep in a folder, on a USB stick or in your own cloud storage, and restore on a new iPhone or Android phone.
- One phone at a time. Otter has no sync and no desktop app, so it cannot show the same codes on two devices.
At a glance
| Otter | Authy | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free, no ads, no in-app purchase | Free |
| Platforms | iPhone and Android | iPhone and Android. The desktop apps closed in March 2024 |
| Account needed | None | Yes, tied to a phone number |
| Where copies of your keys live | On your phone, and in backup files you export yourself | On Twilio’s servers, encrypted with your backup password, when backups are on |
| Export to a file you keep | Yes, encrypted with a passphrase you choose | No |
| Network use | None. The Android app does not even hold the internet permission | Needed to sign up and to sync |
What this page says about other apps was checked in October 2026. Apps change: if something here is out of date, write to otter@foohx.com and it will be corrected.
Which one to choose
If you need the same codes on several devices and are happy for Twilio to hold an encrypted copy, Authy does that job. If you would rather nobody held your codes but you, with no phone number attached to them, Otter is built for exactly that. Either way, remember that Authy has no export: leaving it means adding each account again, service by service, so choose the app you move to with care.
Moving your accounts to Otter
Authy cannot export, so each account is added again from the service itself: sign in, open its two-factor settings, set up a new authenticator, and scan the QR code it shows with Otter. Keep Authy installed until every account has been moved and tested.
Moving your two-factor accounts to another app, step by step
Try Otter
Free on iPhone and Android. No account to create and nothing to sync: install it, scan your first QR code, and the code is on your screen.