Thursday, June 25, 2009

Google Account Recovery via SMS

Google added a new password recovery option: you can now associate a mobile phone number with your Google Account and Google will send a recovery code by SMS.

"Since most people use cell phones these days, we decided text messaging would be an easy, convenient addition to our password recovery options. To set up password recovery via your mobile phone, just sign in to your account and click Change Password Recovery Options. Enter your mobile phone number and current password and then click Save. If you lose access to your account for any reason, you'll be able to regain access by entering a code we'll send in a text message."


For now, the options is only available in the US, so you need to use a US proxy to see it. Google also updated the password recovery settings page to include all the account-recovery options: secondary email addresses, text messages and the security question.

Update: the feature is now available everywhere.

{ via Blogoscoped Forum }

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  14 comments ( Post a comment )
Good option to have instead of secondary email accounts.
I like it. But Mongolia is not listed there :-(

Please edit the article. Lots of countries (not only US) are listed there.
The feature has been made available only in the US, but that doesn't mean that US is the only supported country. If you can get Google Calendar notifications, you'll be able to use the new feature.
If you loose your cellphone and the person who finds it finds out your Google account, that person could hijack your account.
My parents' Google Talk account has been locked despite Google sending them a reset notice.

Their in their 70's and use Google Talk to stay in touch with their kids and family all across Canada.

Wish I could find someone to contact at google to help me with this.

I tried Googling it but came up blank!
Hey,

It's not available to all countries. When will it come to india?

Thanks
Sankar
@Alex. Not true about Google Calendar. Almost everyone can recevive calendar notifications by SMS, but not all can receive SMS for Google Account Recovery. Even if you have a "Supported carrier" as the help page, you can't enable this feature.
http://www.google.com/support/accounts/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=150489
@KMB:

Here's what I said:

"The feature has been made available only in the US, but that doesn't mean that US is the only supported country. If you can get Google Calendar notifications, you'll be able to use the new feature."

You'll be able to use the new feature when it's available outside US. I used a proxy to enable the feature.
Edu,

if you loose your cellphone you can block your SIM. And nobody will can hijack your account. =)
Great service but why they disable it worldwide and you can use it only in US?
SMS services should be global, like text2land.com service that allow you to send sms messages to landline phones.
Georgia (Sakartvelo) not listed.
This is a fucked up approach... I have been trying to verify the code which was sent trhough my phone.. but i can't seem to find that page..since i closed it.

It's like.. u have to go through all these troubles (that we,@Google, considers to be RIGHT). hmmmmmhhhhh :X
Its now available in India Also
Mobiracle
hey i just got this recovery code on my mobile... how am i supposed to use it...???