There are tons of great 2FA apps to choose from, but if you like an option that is both secure and stylish, Aegis may be the one to consider. The open-source project has started testing a new build in beta that comes with optional Material You theming, making it look more at home on Android than Google’s own Authenticator app.
Aegis developer Beem Development has uploaded the first beta of version 3.0 to Github, as spotted by AssembleDebug. As you’d expect from a big version bump like this, there are quite some new features, the biggest one being a redesign based on Material Design 3 with the option to turn on Material You theming in settings.
Once activated, the Material You theme is active throughout the app, falling right in line with Google apps and other third-party services that use Android’s wallpaper-based theming engine.
Another welcome addition to version 3.0 is automatic icon matching for popular services. In the past, you had to manually search for and add icons to services, but Aegis will now suggest fitting ones automatically. To do so, you can select multiple items and then choose Assign icons in the overflow menu. You still need to manually import an icon pack in the first place for this to work, though.
First 3 images: New Aegis design. Last image: Old Aegis design.
In contrast to some other options, Aegis’ built-in backup solution only works locally or with Android cloud backups. If you want to keep copies of your secrets in other places, you will have to manually upload the backup files to your cloud storage provider.
You can give Aegis a try yourself. It’s available on the Google Play Store, where you need to join the beta to get the new design, and on F-Droid. To get the beta without jumping through any hoops, you can also download the open-source tool from Github.
Maybe if we start telling people the brain is an app they will start using it!
