TL;DR
- Google now lets you sign up for an Android app via email without using magic links and one-time PINs.
- Instead, Android now offers a Verified Email feature that lets you sign up for an app without switching to your email app for verification.
- The feature is only available for consumer Gmail accounts.
Signing up for new Android apps via email is a familiar task for many people. These apps typically send a magic link or one-time PIN (OTP) to your email address to ensure it’s actually your address. But Google has now made things even more seamless on Android with Verified Email.
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Google just updated Android’s Credential Manager API with a Verified Email feature. In short, this means you can sign up for an app without switching to your email app to retrieve a magic link or OTP. In fact, you don’t have to deal with a magic link or OTP at all. Instead, Google says the app refers to the new “cryptographically verified email credential” which is sourced from your Google account and stored on your device. App developers can also subsequently prompt users to create a passkey following this new signup process.
In addition to enabling more convenient app signups, Google says the Verified Email feature can also be used for account recovery and re-authentication for sensitive actions (e.g., changing key settings). So this should be handy for your current apps too.
There are a couple of caveats with Verified Email, though. For one, this is currently restricted to consumer Google accounts. That means you’ll need to stick with the legacy email verification methods for now if you have a Workspace or managed account.
What about Google accounts that are created with non-Google email accounts? The company issued an explanation:
Google is not the authoritative source for these email addresses in the long term. While Google verifies the email when the account is created, the ownership of that email address might change over time. Therefore, for non-@gmail.com addresses, you [app developers – ed] should consider an additional verification step, such as sending an OTP, to ensure that the user still has access to the email account.
The good news is that you don’t need the latest Android phone or tablet to get this functionality. Google notes that the feature supports devices running Android 9 or newer, as well as Google Play Services 25.49.xx or newer. So even your five-year-old phone should get this option.
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Frequently Asked Questions
It lets you sign up for an app via email without switching to your email app for magic links or one-time PINs, using a cryptographically verified email credential from your Google account stored on-device.
The feature is only available for consumer Gmail accounts.
They can prompt users to create a passkey following the signup process, and the feature can also be used for account recovery.
Apps sent a magic link or one-time PIN to your email address to verify it, forcing you to switch to your email app mid-signup.
