By now most people have either seen first hand or have seen another person mention what appears to be a new Xat.com login option. Curiously I was able to take a screenshot of it before it was pulled just minutes later and saw a reference to the Google Authenticator.
Anyone that’s used Google Gmail has most certainly come across their two-step-verification option. For those that haven’t, Google’s two-step authentication requires that you to enter a pin code (SMS texted directly to your mobile phone) to gain access to your email account. It simply adds an additional layer of protection to safeguard your Gmail email account from would-be phishers & scammers.
How this relates to Xat and what they have planned (if they even use it) is still a bit of a mystery. The obvious guess however is that Xat plans on adding Gmail’s two-step verification as an “option” to their login page to make things “safer” for everyone; perhaps even giving users an incentivized bonus power (just like they did with Tickle) for making the switch over to Gmail (“it” presumably being the lesser of two evils – think hotmail, yahoo email, etc…).
We’ll have to wait and see 🙂