(Don't worry this isn't a problem for once...)
I was registering a new Samsung account today and it had to send me a verification email. So I rolled up my sleeves ready to rummage around in the email content trying to find it and copy it out with VoiceOver. But no, the email didn't seem to arrive. Instead, Safari asked me if I wanted to automatically enter the code into the form. I said yes and it asked if I wanted to delete the email, so I said yes again. And that was it, I was in.
Later, because the Samsung account thing is horrible, I had to verify myself again. And I just selected to enter the code and that was it. No email, nothing.
How long has this been a thing? Maybe it's only for particular OTP emails that have been setup in the right way.
I may never see it again anywhere else but I thought it was actually really neat and worked nicely with VoiceOver too. It's not as if I was even using an Apple email address.
Is this an Apple Intelligence thing? Or maybe it's always done it?
Comments
Its not just emails
It’s not just on emails, this also happens with text messages as well. I'm not sure since when it’s been a thing though; maybe since mac ventura? I don't remember, but yeah its been a few versions.
Been possible for quite some time
Not sure about E-mails specifically, but whenever I need to authenticate to a website that sends a verification code to my phone, if iOS recognizes it as a verification code, it will make available a popup menu at the exact location of the field on macOS or a button over the keyboard on iOS, with the latter of which also working in applications. While I too noticed this working when the verification code is sent by E-mail, I don't think that's been available for as long as SMS autofill.
I find these features to be quite convenient, and they are part of the reason why I don't mind to be so entrenched into the Apple ecosystem. For example my bank's desktop site, which provides more functionality than their mobile application, uses SMS authentication a lot in my case, since the other option would be an inaccessible token with a matrix, and pretty much every money transfer above 50€ requires authorization, being able to fill in the authorization code that they send over SMS by just pressing the down arrow to use SMS autofill in Safari on macOS simplifies everything.
Never Seen This But...
I've been to websites that send out these verification codes, but the emails/texts always stay on the screen for me until I manually delete them after entering in the code. Is this automatic thing new? The thing I don't like is the time limits for some of them. But I've gotten so good at VoiceOver that I can just switch to them pretty quickly. I've even helped out my mother with some of these.
Re: texts and authenticator app
I've never seen it for text messages but that sounds really helpful.
I use Microsoft Authenticator for some things, and I think with the new passwords app that maybe you can do these sorts of codes with Apple too. I wonder - if you set that up, maybe this sort of thing would happen there?
I tend to use universal copy/paste for this which used to be brilliant but now only works maybe a quarter of the time. If it would just do it on its own that would be perfect. (Although guessing this would only work in Safari and not in terminal).
Re: Never seen this but
To have iOS, iPadOS, or macOS delete emails or text messages containing verification codes after they've been autofilled, go to Settings (System Settings on macOS) > General > Autofill & Passwords, and toggle the "Delete after use" switch on.
Re: Texts and authenticator app
Yes, the Passwords app can be used to receive TOTP-based verification codes, similar to the functionality of authenticator apps from Google, Microsoft, and Twilio. As these codes are synced via iCloud, there should be no need to copy and paste between your iPhone and Mac to fill in a code. More information on how this is done can be found in the following guides:
@Tyler
Thanks very much for the link - I had a quick read of the Mac guide, which was really helpful. This looks pretty neat - I hadn't realised it would automatically fill it in for you. I will have to give it a go.
There is one code I use all the time at work, but unfortunately mainly in terminal, so I presume I would need to use the Passwords app to get it each time. I suspect navigating a first-party Mac app to get it might end up being more trouble than using the Microsoft Authenticator app on my phone but I'll give it a go on something less crucial and see how it works.
Love this Feature
I love this feature with iOS. I use with my bank all the time when varrifying codes via text message. I also use it with various other websites like amazon. :)