Device Added to Your Account
Whenever I revive one of these devices, if it’s still able to access iCloud and other Apple ID-related services, I get a notification on all my other Apple devices that a certain device has now access to FaceTime and iMessage.
The wording in this notification has changed for the worse in more recent versions of Mac OS and iOS/iPadOS.
[…]
[With the previous wording] I can immediately recognise which Mac (or iOS device) it is because the notification itself is telling me its name. And yes, to be perfectly pedant, this should generally be a non-issue because such notification is expected after signing in on a recently-revived Mac. But the notification doesn’t appear immediately afterwards; there is always some delay, and there have been times in the past where I saw this warning pop up on my iPhone while I was out and about, and caught me slightly unawares. Given the vagueness of the new wording, I did stop in my tracks and — since it wasn’t a good time to fiddle with my phone — I rushed to find a quiet spot to enter Settings and check my devices. The device list took a long time to finally load, and while I waited I recalled I had recharged my 11-inch 2013 MacBook Air the previous evening, so the warning was probably about that sign-in.
[…]
Some may argue that the fact that the new wording for such warning ‘makes you look’ and check is a sign of better security and better UI. But I don’t agree, and the reason is that people very quickly learn to dismiss any warning that has become predictable and annoying.
To me the worst parts are:
- Even if you go to Settings it doesn’t show you which device is the new one.
- The alert doesn’t actually mean that the the device was added in the user sense. Most of the time the device was already in my account, but a software update or something meant that Apple needed to do some kind of key refresh. It feels like I’m being interrupted for an implementation detail.
- The alert often arrives very late or only on a device that I rarely use, rather than on the one I was actively using at the time the other device was “added.”
the problem is deeper. It’s that this is a modal. It demands your attention right this moment. It stands in your way when you’re clearly in the middle of something else.
These kinds of in-your-face attention-diverting modals are a pet peeve of mine. And I absolutely don’t understand how Apple — the company that always prides itself on its UX prowess, and that is endlessly imitated — could be fine with this for as long as iOS has existed.
it could’ve been a notification. It could’ve been an email. It could’ve been any number of things that allow the user to deal with it on their own time[…]
Doesn’t the transient interruption make it more likely to be ignored?
No Apple, I had this device for 9 years, I just turned it on first time in a couple of months, come on, you surely recognize it? 🙄
Every fucking time I turn on any device I don’t use everyday.
I got this after updating to macOS 15.6, but I didn’t update Xcode.
Previously:
- The Signal Chat Leak and the NSA
- A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Permissions Requests
- Ventura Notifies User of New Login Items
- The Alert Hammer
6 Comments RSS · Twitter · Mastodon
It’s because if I’m a state-sponsored hacker, I’d name my device the same as one of your existing devices, so you don’t bother looking when it alerts you.
Also, compare this inconvenience vs other encrypted chats which are limited to a single device.
I don’t understand why the warning states that a new device has been added when it’s already registered to your account. It seems like a bug? I just close these alerts out and don’t check the device list anymore because it’s a waste of time and annoying.
I get these when i turn on an old Macbook Pro i don’t use frequently anymore. I guess if someone did get a device added to my account it could sneak by me since Apple kind of trained me that these alerts are bullshit…
They ought to read that book “The boy who cried wolf”
"These kinds of in-your-face attention-diverting modals are a pet peeve of mine. And I absolutely don’t understand how Apple — the company that always prides itself on its UX prowess, and that is endlessly imitated — could be fine with this for as long as iOS has existed."
How many years now has it been since we could seriously say Apple took UX seriously?
Also, I hate those stupid pop-ups, because every time something goes wrong with iCloud or iMessage -- which is frequently -- I have to sign a device out and back in again, and then suddenly I'm getting those stupid notifications on every device I own.
@Michael Tsai
> Then why doesn’t it actually show you which device was added?
Dunno. It’d be nice to open the settings and see recently added devices highlighted with the time they were added (and perhaps the location, too)
My guess… some cryptography thing. They’re doing something special / interesting to have multiple devices sharing keys but also independent enough from each other that a single device’s key could be revoked by the user without interrupting the rest.
> It’s because if I’m a state-sponsored hacker, I’d name my device the same as one of your existing devices, so you don’t bother looking when it alerts you.
If that’s it, shouldn’t 2FA help?
“A new device, or a device you haven’t used in a while,* has been added to your account. If this was you, enter the following six-digit code on it:”
* surely the tech exists for Apple to figure out the difference? I don’t like UI that makes *me* do the guessing.
