That’s not entirely true anymore.
I lost my physical authenticator when my car caught on fire a couple months ago and have yet to remove it from my account. When I go to log in now, when it asks for an authenticator it gives me the option to have a code texted to me via SMS Protect instead.
If not for this unexpected feature, I would’ve had to remove my physical authenticator and switch to the app.
Most people have stated it, because of the usage of phones in the world. It only makes sense, however from a marketing standpoint, a lot of people liked the authenticators, heck I still have mine and I’m sure a lot of people would have spent money to collect them as well as use them. You know what, screw the phones! BRING THEM BACK!
You don’t, unless you want to use an authenticator. I used to have the physical one but i switched to the app years ago. Best decision possible. No more worries but getting locked out of WoW if it breaks, or I lose it, or if the dog eats it, and I can authenticate myself at any time.
Plus the argument about smart phone battery life is a silly one. If someone is playing WoW, they are at a computer, which means worst case scenario, they could be charging their phone.
luddites pfft we are Ludens
Because nearly everybody in the first world has a smartphone.
I don’t know why they’re discontinuing the keychains, but it’s not really that big of a deal.
Who on earth is paying 75+ bucks a month for their plan?
I pay 30. I could pay even less if i wanted to.
I have a flip phone and its all i need for calling ppl .All that other stuff you can do with a smart phone like looking at facebook watching youtube or surfing the web i can do on my PC. That is why I have a PC.
I am not really sure what I will be able to do now
This the same as me
You can buy a smart phone for less than 50 bucks brand new. Heck I use tracfone and I paid $88 shipped for my phone and a year of service. Phone is a Samsung Galaxy j3 core and runs pretty much any android app. If you want a crappier phone you can probably get them even cheaper.
If you actually had some knowledge of smart phones, you wouldn’t be so afraid of them.
My father, who is turning 66 this year, learned how to use a tablet after getting one for Xmas.
He was the type of person who will ask me or my brother what to do when he gets a prompt on a computer screen that spells out exactly what it is doing and to click OK to continue or CANCEL.
He has to put on reading glasses to read the screen.
He grew up without tech.
He can figure it out.
Financial hardships aside, there is no excuse for not learning modern technology that is created to be used by people of all skill levels.
Nobody is expecting you to start repairing iPhones at the Apple store, but you can run a basic app, play music, take photos, GPS, etc… with very little knowledge.
Smartphones are just all the technology that’s been released over the last few decades coming together in one place. If you have been living in the woods off the grid for the last 20-30 years I guess it’s scary, but it really isn’t.
Your Desktop or Laptop you play WoW on is likely a much bigger liability for security than a smartphone is.
Also, plenty of people use smartphones who aren’t “addicted” to phones because they understand it’s technology that can and does improve our lives.
But by all means you keep riding your proverbial horse and buggy straight to the grave, because smartphone bad.
guess that requires having a provider now doesn’t it? 
Not everyone on the planet has a phone… I do but a lot of folks don’t, or if they are low income they don’t get smart phones with cheap plans, so i can understand why this does bother some people.
Honestly Blizzard needs to support Google Authenticator app.
I was assuming you needed a phone number to go with authenticator app. Tablets don’t have those.
Authenticator is an app, you don’t need a phone number to use it. You do need a text-enabled phone number for SMS Protect.
I still use a physical authenticator as well, and have done since Cataclysm. Does this mean I’ll have to switch to mobile eventually or what? I’ve never really had an interest in smart phones; my first experience with a phone using touch screen tech kind of soured me to them, but …I do need to upgrade eventually I guess? Still, want to know what this means for physical authenticators already active.
They’ve stopped producing them. Existing authenticators are unaffected.
Okay, that’s good to know at least. I’ll just have to keep an eye on mine and be prepared to switch should it show signs of beginning to fail.
I forgot about that option! Whenever my physical authenticator finally goes kaput, I’ll have to look into that. Thanks 
If you have a working physical authenticator nothing will change until it eventually dies. They aren’t stopping supporting them, they just aren’t selling them anymore.
I currently have a physical authenticator on my account, but I no longer have the device (it died in a car fire). Whenever I am prompted for my authenticator, there is a drop-down box that let’s me have them send me a text message code to input instead.
I’ll eventually switch to using the app, I just don’t want to bother with it right now since I don’t have to.
So if you have SMS set up on your account you shouldn’t need to actually replace the physical authenticator when it dies.