Two-factor authentication helps protect your accounts from prying eyes, but setting it up can be a pain. So, Facebook is making the process a little easier.

You can now set up two-factor authentication on the social network without registering a phone number.

"We previously required a phone number in order to set up two-factor authentication, to help prevent account lock-outs," Facebook Product Manager Scott Dickens wrote in a blog post. "Now that we have redesigned the feature to make the process easier to use third-party authentication apps like Google Authenticator and Duo Security on both desktop and mobile, we are no longer making the phone number mandatory."

To enable two-factor authentication on your Facebook account, head to settings and click the "Security and Login" tab. From there, Facebook's new "streamlined setup flow" will guide you through the process of turning on the feature.

The change comes after Facebook in February promised to fix a "bug" that caused people who signed up for two-factor authentication to receive spammy, non-security related SMS notifications. Software engineer Gabriel Lewis said he started receiving SMS messages informing him when friends posted on Facebook after enabling two-factor authentication on his account. Worse, when Lewis responded to the texts demanding Facebook stop sending them, his responses were posted on his Facebook page as status updates.

"This was not an intentional decision; this was a bug," Facebook's chief security officer Alex Stamos said at the time. "The last thing we want is for people to avoid helpful security features because they fear they will receive unrelated notifications."