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I think a lot of the complaints here are "nerd problems". For customers they seem like a super convenient thing, I was just implementing them in my app. Yes ma

I think a lot of the complaints here are "nerd problems". For customers they seem like a super convenient thing, I was just implementing them in my app. Yes magic links have problems and it's probably making me lean more towards the "emailing a code" option now, some of those problems outlined aren't easy to ignore. The app I'm working on, users would login probably once or twice a year. I just can't imagine they want to deal with passwords, especially because my app is very niche, they'd use it once a year for one thing only. What I can imagine them having to do is constantly use the "forgot my password" feature anyway. For conversion easy logins are really important.Anyone have any better ideas than magic links, passwords or one time codes in email?

wohfab 4y ago
I mean, the magic link could be an addition to the "forgot password" screen, then? As in "reset password or login via magic link"?
DocTomoe 4y ago
I quit using services that have magic links as their only authorisation method - and so does my 65 year old, very non-nerdy mother (she complains about 'having to wait for a damn email' all the time) > Anyone have any better ideas than magic links, passwords or one time codes in email? Passwords. Password managers are not a new concept, they have been around for decades by now, have deep browser integration (either because they often are part of the browser, or in the case of Apple, the OS), and are easily understood by users.
joshstrange 4y ago
I'm in the same boat. People login 1 time a year (it's for an event) and using magic links means I don't have to deal with password management, forgot/reset password flows, and more. It also means signing up is as easy as entering your email (the web/app prompts you for the other required info on first login). Out of thousands of people who used the system I only had 1-2 people who had issues. One was using their work email (why do people do this?) and I think it was being filtered and the other was using Yahoo but for some reason the emails were slow to deliver, 2-3 minutes (far from the only Yahoo user, only one that had issues).
zinekeller 4y ago
> I think a lot of the complaints here are "nerd problems". Not really. - Email deliverability is a serious issue - some well-known providers (Apple and Microsoft) can delay email up to five minutes because they're scanning it, and that's assuming that it didn't went to spam. Compared to 2FA login, that's an eternity. - Also, speaking of scanning emails, some do "click" them to check that it's not a harmful page (Microsoft, Google Workspace if admin enabled it, Barracuda which is common on enterprise), rendering the link invalid. - Not everyone keeps their email logged in (or uses a different app/client to keep them logged in), which results in worse experience. - Most mobile email clients (Mail on Apple, Gmail, Outlook) by default launch a different window, meaning you're logging into the mail client and not the browser.

wohfab 4y ago

I mean, the magic link could be an addition to the "forgot password" screen, then? As in "reset password or login via magic link"?

DocTomoe 4y ago

I quit using services that have magic links as their only authorisation method - and so does my 65 year old, very non-nerdy mother (she complains about 'having to wait for a damn email' all the time) > Anyone have any better ideas than magic links, passwords or one time codes in email? Passwords. Password managers are not a new concept, they have been around for decades by now, have deep browser integration (either because they often are part of the browser, or in the case of Apple, the OS), and are easily understood by users.

joshstrange 4y ago

I'm in the same boat. People login 1 time a year (it's for an event) and using magic links means I don't have to deal with password management, forgot/reset password flows, and more. It also means signing up is as easy as entering your email (the web/app prompts you for the other required info on first login). Out of thousands of people who used the system I only had 1-2 people who had issues. One was using their work email (why do people do this?) and I think it was being filtered and the other was using Yahoo but for some reason the emails were slow to deliver, 2-3 minutes (far from the only Yahoo user, only one that had issues).

zinekeller 4y ago

> I think a lot of the complaints here are "nerd problems". Not really. - Email deliverability is a serious issue - some well-known providers (Apple and Microsoft) can delay email up to five minutes because they're scanning it, and that's assuming that it didn't went to spam. Compared to 2FA login, that's an eternity. - Also, speaking of scanning emails, some do "click" them to check that it's not a harmful page (Microsoft, Google Workspace if admin enabled it, Barracuda which is common on enterprise), rendering the link invalid. - Not everyone keeps their email logged in (or uses a different app/client to keep them logged in), which results in worse experience. - Most mobile email clients (Mail on Apple, Gmail, Outlook) by default launch a different window, meaning you're logging into the mail client and not the browser.