Do I need to go through social recovery every time I open my Portkey App/extension?

Short answer: no, unless you have manually logged out on that device.

• If your account is kept logged in on the device, what you need to do is to unlock Portkey. Unlocking is as simple as using your face ID or touch ID or entering the PIN. Such operations do not initiate transactions on blockchain, hence no social recovery is triggered.
• If you are logged out on a device and wish to log back in, or if you are trying to log in on a new device, then social recovery will be triggered.