How do I turn off Microsoft Authenticator?

I have tried and didn't remove this.

Thank you for your reply. But WHICH options need to be checked/unchecked to allow ONLY the texted code and DISABLE the Authentication App?

So far, it seems like you can either turn it on and you have to deal with the Authentication App. Or turn it off in which case you don't get either the texted code or the authentication app. We only want the texted code and NOT the Authentication App. This seems to be what most folks want.

There's 2 things going on right now.

First, Microsoft has a "campaign" feature to push users to enroll in Microsoft Authenticator. This setting is called "Registration campaign" in the Entra (Identity) admin portal. This can be disabled. How to run a registration campaign to set up Microsoft Authenticator - Microsoft Entra | Microsoft Learn

Secondly, you can achieve what you're looking for by updating your Authentication methods policies, enabling SMS and disabling the Microsoft Authenticator. This is not gated by Security Defaults.

Both these settings are located in entra.microsoft.com > Protection > Authentication methods.

As for the person who asked "why isn't this simple", it is if you use Augmentt. We support both the Registration Campaign and disabling Microsoft Authenticator.

I'd upload pics of the Entra portal for you guys, but they are failing to upload for some reason. :(

I sifted through all the Azure / Entra / Teams / Office 365 and whatever else interfaces now and disabled everything related to Microsoft Authenticator, while keeping only SMS and E-Mail OTP enabled, and all that happened when I was done was that team members trying to use their Teams account got an error on login, until I at least reenabled MS Authenticator under Entra admin center > Protection > Authentication methods > Policies, which again causes users to be forced to use MS Authenticator with no way out.

We're only using the Teams part as an alternative to our self-hosted WebRTC based conferencing solution, and we definitely do not want our users to install the MS Authenticator app just for that purpose.

Thank you Mike! I appreciate the screenshots and the emphasis on the "Service Settings" being greyed out to look like it's not a link ; ) Unchecking both mobile app buttons solved the issue for me.

Screenshot of the page for disabling the "registration campaign" which forces users to install and use the Microsoft Authenticator App