Re: gmail+imap+smtp (oauth2)

[Brian Cully]

Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> writes:

> Does it have to be _your_ phone number, or can it be any phone
> that you can answer at the time of creating the app password?
> Will Google ever phone you again on the same number?
>
> Another question is, does setting up the app password require
> a computer running nonfree software?  (For instance, a mobile 
> phone.)
> Can you do this with a landline?

It does not have to be your phone number, no. They will send an 
SMS to whatever number you choose (so long as its not on a 
blacklist somewhere). You do not need to run non-free software, 
presuming you can receive SMS with non-free software (there are 
services for such things).

However, you have the choice of using TOTP for 2FA[1], in which 
case you can use any number of free applications to generate codes 
for you. If you use SMS as your 2FA, Google will send messages to 
you periodically as you attempt to log in to services (though only 
with your main password - not app passwords). Once converted to 
TOTP, though, I do not believe Google will ever try to contact you 
again. I have set up Google accounts using burner numbers and 
converted them to TOTP without any issue over the years. However, 
there’s obviously no guarantee that Google will continue to allow 
this in the future.

-bjc

[1] There may be restrictions I’m not aware of when using TOTP, as 
I’d set mine up a long time ago. You may, for instance, need to be 
able to receive SMS in order to do the initial TOTP setup. You 
definitely need to use SMS to do initial account setup.