One-tap codes
Tap a code to copy it. Your clipboard is cleared automatically after 60 seconds so the code does not linger.
v3.2 Free 2FA authenticator for iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch
Two-factor codes that never leave your device.
Autheris is a privacy-first authenticator for iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch. It generates the one-time passwords that protect your accounts and keeps the secrets behind them in the Keychain — no account, no sign-up, no analytics, no ads.
- Free, open source (MIT)
- iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS 14 and watchOS 26
- Works entirely offline
On a computer? Point your iPhone camera here to open Autheris on the App Store.
··· ···
30s
In the KeychainThis device only
Sync is opt-inEnd-to-end encrypted
New on Apple WatchCodes on your wrist
- 0 accountsNothing to sign up for
- 0 trackersNo analytics or ads in the app
- KeychainWhere your secrets live
- MIT licenceRead every line
Switching from another authenticator?
Bring your accounts across in a few minutes. Nothing already set up has to break.
- From Google Authenticator Scan its transfer QR code once and every account comes across. See how
- From Authy No phone number, and a native Mac app now Authy’s desktop app is gone. See how
- Want codes on your Apple Watch? One code at a time on your wrist, even with your iPhone out of reach. See how
Also imports Aegis, andOTP and 2FAS exports. Import help
Features
Everything an authenticator should do
Codes you can copy in one tap, a list that stays tidy, and the recovery paths you only notice when something goes wrong.
Import from another app
Bring accounts across from Google Authenticator, Aegis, andOTP and 2FAS, or from an Autheris backup.
Pin and reorder
Pin the codes you use most to the top and drag the rest into whatever order suits you. Pins sync, the manual order stays per device.
Recently Deleted
A deleted code stays recoverable on your device for 7 days. Restore it, or remove it for good straight away.
QR and setup links
Add an account by scanning its QR code with your camera, or by picking a screenshot from your photo library. Setup links paste straight in.
SHA-1, SHA-256, SHA-512
Choose the algorithm per account for the services that need more than the default — the preview code updates live as you change it.
Time- and counter-based
Almost every service uses a code that changes with the clock. For the few that hand you a counter instead, the code stays put until you spend it — with a Next button on the card.
Setup key access
View, copy or edit a token’s secret when you need to move it somewhere else. It stays masked until you tap to reveal it.
Countdown ring
A clear ring shows how long each code has left, and the colour is yours to set per account.
Search and issuer icons
Find any account instantly however long the list gets, with familiar brand marks so you can spot it at a glance.
Release notes
What’s new in 3.2
3.2 adds folders to sort your tokens, a Settings redesigned page by page, and a picture or emoji for any code. App Lock now protects your codes where they’re stored, not just the screen, and Backup, Transfer QR codes and setup keys ask for Face ID even with App Lock off. One App Store listing, one set of codes, one set of settings, on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch.
Security and feature improvements ship every week, released on the weekend.
Autheris 3.2
New in 3.2 — Folders, a new Settings and stronger protection
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Folders. Turn them on in Settings, then give each folder a name and an optional colour, shown on its chip above the list. Tap a chip to see that folder, keep each one in its own order, and in Edit drag a token onto a chip to file it. With iCloud Sync on, folders sync to your other devices. They’re off until you turn them on, and never leave in backups, Transfer QR codes or to the watch.
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A picture or emoji for any code. Choose a photo, or pick an emoji — which works even with service logos turned off. Pictures sync with iCloud Sync and go into backups, and are never sent to the Apple Watch, to logo.dev, or in a Transfer QR code.
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App Lock protects stored codes. With it on, your iPhone asks for Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode before the codes can be read — not only to show the screen. Backup, Transfer QR codes and setup keys now ask too, even with App Lock off, since they reveal every code.
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Settings, redesigned. Each group — Privacy, iCloud Sync, Appearance, Data and Help — now has its own page instead of one long list, with a side-by-side layout on iPad. Nothing moved or changed, only where it’s shown.
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Appearance and accents. Follow the system, or choose Light or Dark, with three more accent colours: blue, violet and orange.
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Sync Now. iCloud Sync has a Sync Now button, to bring your other devices up to date straight away instead of waiting for the next change.
Also new in 3.1 — reliability and a new welcome
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Counter-based codes never go back. Syncing, editing, restoring a backup, and a sync that had to retry all keep the higher counter. Each lower one is a code that has already been shown and may have been accepted.
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Steadier iCloud sync. An edit made while a sync is running is no longer undone when it finishes, and Delete Tokens from iCloud waits for any sync in flight so your codes can’t be re-uploaded just after.
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The privacy screen covers everything. It used to cover only the code list, so the app switcher or a screen recording could show an open setup key, a Transfer QR code, or a code being edited. On Mac, every window is kept out of recordings now, not just the main one.
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A new welcome, and a watch switch. New installs get a redesigned welcome that names every way a setup key can leave the device. Settings › Privacy has a Send codes to Apple Watch switch, and logos are off until you turn them on.
Apple Watch
An authenticator for Apple Watch: your codes, on your wrist
Since version 2.4 Autheris runs on Apple Watch as well. One code at a time, a swipe or a turn of the Digital Crown apart, each with its own live countdown — so the second factor is on your wrist at the moment the login asks for it.
One code at a time
Turn the Digital Crown or swipe to move between codes. Each one carries its own countdown ring, and nothing has to be unlocked or tapped twice.
Read-only by design
There is no copy, no editing and no settings on the watch. Adding, changing and deleting codes still happens on your iPhone, which sends the list across — and nothing is sent until you install the watch app.
Works without your iPhone
Codes are generated on the watch itself, so they keep counting down with your phone out of reach or switched off. A code you add or delete on the iPhone appears, or disappears, within seconds.
Protected like the iPhone
The watch keeps its copy of the list in its own Keychain, with the same kSecAttrAccessibleWhenUnlockedThisDeviceOnly protection the iPhone uses. The watch is a viewer, never a second vault to keep in step.
How it works
Switch authenticator apps in minutes, then forget about it
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Add your accounts
Scan the QR code a service shows you, paste a setup link, or import an export from the authenticator you already use. Name the account — or leave it blank.
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Lock it down
Turn on App Lock: Face ID or Touch ID on iPhone and iPad, Touch ID or your login password on the Mac. Autheris locks when it opens and again 30 seconds after it goes to the background, and blurs its content in the app switcher.
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Copy codes in a tap
Open the app, tap the code you need, and paste it. The clipboard clears itself after 60 seconds, and codes are covered while your screen is being recorded.
Security & privacy
Zero-knowledge by architecture, not by promise
There is no Autheris account and no Autheris server holding your tokens. Here is exactly where your data lives, what sync sends, and what the app cannot protect you from.
Secrets live in the device Keychain
Tokens are persisted as JSON in the Keychain with
kSecAttrAccessibleWhenUnlockedThisDeviceOnly: other apps cannot read
them, they do not travel with iCloud Keychain or an encrypted backup, and they are
only readable while your device is unlocked. On the Mac the same data goes to the
data protection Keychain, reached with kSecUseDataProtectionKeychain.
A full compromise of your device — including a forensic extraction — should still be treated as a compromise of your tokens. Autheris is honest about that rather than pretending otherwise.
iCloud Sync is opt-in and encrypted
Sync is off by default and only ever uses the private CloudKit database tied to your own Apple ID. Labels, account names, secrets, ring colours and pin flags are written through CloudKit’s encrypted fields, so they are not readable by the developer or visible in the CloudKit dashboard.
Only non-secret metadata is stored as plain fields: timestamps, algorithm, digits, period, and a one-way fingerprint used to detect changes.
Unlock, blur, and recording protection
Face ID or Touch ID locks the app when it opens and again 30 seconds after it is backgrounded — on the Mac, Touch ID or your login password. Content blurs when you switch apps, codes are hidden in the app switcher, and they are covered whenever the screen is being recorded or mirrored.
On the Mac there is no recording signal to detect, so the app does the stronger thing instead and asks the system to keep its windows out of screen capture altogether. All three protections default to on and can be tuned in Settings.
Deletes stay deleted
Deleting a code writes a tombstone immediately, so it disappears from your other devices at once — the 7-day Recently Deleted bin never delays that. Tombstones are stored in the Keychain, which is why a reinstall can no longer resurrect codes you asked to delete.
Tombstones are kept for 30 days. A device that stays offline longer than that and still holds a live copy can reintroduce a token — the deliberate trade-off for not carrying deletion bookkeeping forever.
What Autheris cannot protect you from. On iPhone and iPad, iOS gives apps no notice when a screenshot is taken, so the privacy screen cannot cover one — Autheris does not claim it does. The Mac has no such signal either, so the app keeps its windows out of screen capture entirely instead, which is why it also stays out of your own screenshots and recordings. Backups you export are protected by the password you set and by wherever you choose to keep the file. If you never enable iCloud Sync and never export a backup, your codes exist only on the device they were added to.
Screenshots
Autheris on iPhone
Scroll through the App Store gallery. iPad and Mac run the same design — on the larger screens the list becomes a grid. Apple Watch gets its own dedicated view, one code at a time.
Mac & iPad
The same codes, on the big screen
Autheris is not a scaled-up phone app. On the Mac it is a native build with a proper preferences window, and on iPad the list opens up into a grid — one App Store listing, one set of codes, kept in step by iCloud Sync if you turn it on.
FAQ
2FA authenticator questions people actually ask
More answers, including troubleshooting steps, are on the support page.
Is Autheris free?
Yes — Autheris is free on the App Store, with no ads. The source code is published under the MIT licence, so you can audit exactly what it does with your secrets.
Which devices does Autheris run on?
iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch — one App Store listing installs the iPhone, iPad and Mac app. It needs iOS or iPadOS 26.0 or later, or macOS 14.0 or later.
The Apple Watch app comes with the iPhone app and needs watchOS 26.0 or later. The Mac app is a native build rather than a scaled-up phone app, and if you turn on iCloud Sync your codes stay in step across all of them.
Is there an authenticator app for Apple Watch?
Yes — Autheris 2.4 added one. It shows your codes on your wrist, one at a time, a swipe or a turn of the Digital Crown apart, each with its own countdown ring. It comes with the iPhone app, which is what sends your codes across.
The watch app is deliberately read-only: no copy, no editing and no settings. Adding, changing and deleting codes still happens on your iPhone.
Does the Apple Watch app work without my iPhone?
Yes. Codes are generated on the watch itself and the most recent list is kept on the watch, so they keep counting down with your iPhone in another room or switched off. Nothing is sent at all until you install the watch app.
Do I need an account?
No. There is nothing to sign up for, no email address to hand over, and no Autheris server in the middle. An iCloud account is only relevant if you choose to turn iCloud Sync on.
Where exactly are my secrets stored?
In the device Keychain, as JSON, using kSecAttrAccessibleWhenUnlockedThisDeviceOnly — on the Mac that is the data protection Keychain. That keeps them off other apps, out of iCloud Keychain, out of encrypted device backups, and unreadable while the device is locked.
If you export a backup, that file is protected by the password you choose (AES-256-GCM) and by wherever you decide to keep it.
Does it sync to iCloud?
Only when you turn it on — the setting is off by default and it is a per-device choice.
- Sync uses your private CloudKit database, scoped to your Apple ID.
- Labels, account names, secrets, ring colours and pin flags are written as CloudKit encrypted fields. The developer cannot read them.
- Turning sync off asks what to do: keep the codes on this device, or delete the iCloud copy first — which removes them from your other devices too.
What happens if I lose my phone?
If iCloud Sync was on, your codes come back on a new iPhone, iPad or Mac signed in to the same Apple ID. If it was off and you have no backup export, the codes only ever existed on that device — which is the point of the design, and the risk to plan around.
Export an encrypted backup from Settings → Backup, or turn on sync, before the day you need it.
Can I import from Google Authenticator?
Yes. Autheris imports from Google Authenticator, Aegis, andOTP and 2FAS export files, and it scans QR codes or accepts setup links one account at a time.
What are counter-based codes?
Most services use a code derived from the clock that changes every 30 seconds. A few instead hand you a code tied to a counter: it stays the same until you spend it, so it never expires on a timer. Autheris 2.6 generates both kinds, shows which counter a counter-based code is on, and puts a Next button on its card to move it on.
Autheris works out which kind a code is when you scan its QR code or import it, so a counter-based account is added as the right kind — not as a time-based one whose codes a service would reject.
Why can’t it hide my codes from a screenshot?
Because on iPhone and iPad iOS does not tell apps when a screenshot is taken, and the capture protection only applies to screen recording and mirroring. Autheris covers your codes in the app switcher and during recording, but a screenshot is a single frame taken without the app’s involvement. It does not pretend to block them. On the Mac there is no signal to detect either, so the app keeps its windows out of screen capture instead — they do not appear in a screenshot, your own captures included.
Is it open source?
Yes — Swift/SwiftUI, MIT licensed, at github.com/nerdykidtech/Autheris. The security-relevant logic (sync merge rules, tombstones, ordering, privacy shield, backup crypto) lives in small pure types with unit tests.
Keep your second factor under your own control
Free on the App Store for iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch. No account, no tracking, nothing to cancel later.
iOS 26.0, iPadOS 26.0, macOS 14.0 and watchOS 26.0 or later · Version 3.2 · Free