[claytongulick]

I prefer SMS for 2FA because some authenticator apps get tied to a device.

I'm worried about losing my phone and being locked out.

With SMS, I can show my ID to the Verizon rep, get a new phone, and I'm good to go.

[tester457]

Only downside is the verizon rep giving your sim to someone who deepfaked your voice.

[piperswe]

Or the T-Mobile rep doing the same for someone who asked nicely with whatever voice and knew a couple relatively-easy-to-find details about you

[jjav]

> With SMS, I can show my ID to the Verizon rep, get a new phone, and I'm good to go.

Which means that anyone else who can fake an ID is good to go with that verizon rep. Or the rep themselves.

I will always avoid connecting any account to SMS if at all possible, it's the worst of all options.

TOTP is the best, as it is an open standard and doesn't tie you to any device nor any vendor.

> I prefer SMS for 2FA because some authenticator apps get tied to a device.

No need! Just save the TOTP seed in a safe place such as a computer under your control (i.e. not a phone) or even a piece of paper in a safe.

[LexGray]

At least for the Apple ecosystem 2FA is built into the iCloud Keychain so you can access it from multiple devices. While there are security implications, in general it is a good trade off that the Safari or apps will only offer to auto-fill on the matching site. For the general population it is a far nicer, safer, and faster solution than waiting for the matching SMS code to login.

The biggest downside is if the site isn't set up correctly it is a long trek into Settings to get the code and it makes the site seem less trustworthy.

[Arch-TK]

Obviously custom non-TOTP authenticators are dumb and not much better than SMS 2FA. I was mainly asking why anyone would opt for SMS (or a custom authenticator app) over just a TOTP authenticator.