Forgot Your Gmail Password? Time To Phone A Friend!

Just Make Sure They Are Worthy Of Your Trust

The proliferation of passkeys and authentication apps for 2FA presents somewhat of a problem if you lose the device you use to authenticate.  It can even make upgrading your phone rather frustrating unless you follow very specific steps to ensure you transfer your authentication apps properly.  This can be made even more frustrating if you happen to have forgotten your password, and need to overcome that challenge before you can even start with 2FA.

Google has come up with a way to help Gmail users which find themselves with this sort of authentication challenge; the ability to choose a family member or friend to help you authenticate yourself if you end up in dire straights.  You can choose up to 10 recovery contacts per account, and you can be a recovery contact for up to 25.

It should be a relatively secure option, but you should make sure the contacts you chose are unlikely to provide their recovery codes to strange phone numbers and email addresses which claim to be you.  Google also checks the history, location, and IP address of the device which is attempting to start the Gmail recovery process which should also help secure this process.

It is completely voluntary, and as The Register mentions, certain accounts will not be able to take part in this new Gmail recovery process.