As of March 31, customers within the US can now replace their Google Account username whereas maintaining their account, inbox, and information totally intact. In case your platform makes use of Check in with Google or identifies customers by e-mail, this put up explains how this replace impacts your integration and any steps you might must take.
Many customers have outdated e-mail addresses that not replicate who they’re—whether or not as a result of a reputation change, a shift in skilled id, or just a username that they’ve outgrown.
With this replace, when a person adjustments their username, their authentic e-mail deal with is retained as a substitute linked to the identical account. Each emails level to the identical inbox. Customers can proceed to register, ship, and obtain e-mail utilizing both. Whereas this functionality has been out there to enterprise Workspace customers, we’re now increasing it to client Google Accounts with a @gmail.com deal with.
What it means to your platform
How this function impacts your customers is dependent upon how they authenticate together with your platform and the way your platform identifies them.
Check in with Google customers, recognized by topic ID
In case your platform already makes use of topic ID as the first account identifier, no motion is required. The topic ID is secure and won’t change, no matter any adjustments made to the e-mail deal with.
Check in with Google customers, recognized by e-mail deal with
In case your platform makes use of Check in with Google, and maps person accounts primarily based off of the e-mail deal with from the ID token, some customers might expertise disruption after altering their username.
- If an OAuth grant from earlier than the username change stays lively, Google will proceed to supply the outdated e-mail deal with to take care of continuity. The person authentication expertise ought to sometimes stay uninterrupted.
- Nonetheless, if an OAuth grant was revoked by the person, Google will present the brand new e-mail deal with as an alternative on subsequent register. This may increasingly trigger your platform to fail to acknowledge the person, doubtlessly leading to duplicate accounts and lack of entry to current information.
As a greatest apply, we suggest migrating to topic ID as your main person identifier. See the suggestions part under.
Handbook account and password customers
For customers who register with e-mail and password, the sign-in expertise can be unaffected. The person’s outdated e-mail deal with stays lively, to allow them to proceed signing in as regular. Since a person initially created the account in your platform utilizing an e-mail deal with and password, your platform has no topic ID on file; it solely is aware of the e-mail deal with.
- Danger of duplication: If the person later makes an attempt to make use of Check in with Google with a brand new e-mail deal with, your platform can be unable to hyperlink this new Google id to an current account, which may create a replica account.
To forestall this from occurring, enable customers to replace the e-mail deal with related to their account in your platform. This permits customers to seamlessly register to their current account utilizing Check in with Google, alongside e-mail and password.
A notice on passkeys
For customers who use passkeys to signal into your platform, this function won’t impression their sign-in expertise.
Our Suggestions
To make sure a clean transition to your customers, we suggest following these three steps:
- Use topic ID as your main person identifier. Topic ID (sub) is probably the most dependable identifier for a Google person and stays unchanged even when a person updates their e-mail deal with. We strongly suggest utilizing it as the first key for any person account authenticated through Check in with Google. You’ll find extra technical particulars on Topic ID in our implementation greatest practices.
- Present email-based account restoration. If adopting the topic ID shouldn’t be instantly possible, providing email-based account restoration is crucial. Since Google retains the outdated e-mail deal with as an alias, restoration messages despatched to the unique deal with will nonetheless attain the person.
- Allow e-mail updates. For customers who signed as much as your platform with conventional e-mail and password accounts, enable them to replace their contact data inside your platform settings to forestall sign-in points.
We encourage you to assessment your present authentication choices and implement these updates to take care of a seamless person expertise.
An incredible expertise to your customers
With these enhancements, we’re making customers’ expertise less complicated and safer, so customers can simply keep engaged in your platform. You probably have any questions, go to builders.google.com.
