SkinLords Steam Guides What is the Steam Guard Mobile Authenticator?

What is the Steam Guard Mobile Authenticator?

Steam Guard is essentially the Valve-created platform’s version of two-factor authentication, requiring more than just a simple username and password login to gain access to any account. Especially on new or previously unauthorized devices (and sometimes even on devices that had previously been accessed), Steam Guard delays the login process by requiring a special access code that can only be obtained through the connected mobile authenticator or email.

How To Activate Steam Guard

There are two ways that a person can make use of Steam Guard. One is through email, and the other is through the Steam Guard mobile authenticator on one’s personal device.

In most cases, a person’s Steam account is already verified by completing the process during sign-up. If not, however, then first accomplish the verification process before continuing any further. Once done with that, simply go to the “Steam” tab on your client, then click “Settings” -> “Security” -> “Manage Steam Guard”. From there, you can follow the steps to activate Steam Guard and start receiving codes through email.

For the mobile authenticator, first download the Steam application on your phone or any mobile device. Simply sign in to Steam and follow the steps to add the authenticator. With Steam Guard enabled on a mobile device, you can also now just scan the QR code through the Steam mobile app to quickly log in on a laptop or PC.

Can I Disable Steam Mobile Authenticator?

You can definitely disable Steam Guard from your account, but there’s really no reason to do so. Still, if you choose to go without Steam Guard completely, several features on your account will be affected. First and foremost is the overall safety, as anyone with your username and password can easily access your Steam account without any additional layer of defense or protection, especially against hackers. Second, you will have a weeklong trade hold for disabling Steam Guard, which is also supposed to be a measure against hackers taking over one’s account. Third, market transactions cannot be possible without Steam Guard. Accounts that do not have Steam Guard enabled for 15 days cannot make use of the Steam Community Market.