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We use multiple websites for distinct purposes like OLA for booking cabs, Amazon & Flipkart for online shopping, etc. One uninteresting and tedious activity during this process is to complete the registration form. Users don’t want to go through the cumbersome steps of creating a user profile and most of them end up abandoning the site due to the lengthy sign-up process.
Implementing social login, by delegating the login function to third-party services like Facebook, Google, Twitter, etc., using different websites has made the login process easier for users. They can choose their favorite social network and sign-in through it. Quite simple, right? Yes, it is for the user.
However, enterprises that are developing applications need to find an effective way to add authentication to their apps. The authentication and authorization should be user-friendly and highly secure. The right solution is by adding social authentication using Auth0.
Why Authentication is Important?
Authentication is essential for any application/website as it enables organizations to keep their networks & applications secure. It permits only authenticated users to access its protected resources. The resources can include anything ranging from data, websites and other network-based applications or services.
During development, one of the major issues developers constantly face is implementing authentication and authorization. Any gaps in this make the entire application vulnerable to multiple threats. Typically, one of the following authentication processes are followed:
- Session & cookie-based authentication
- Token-based authentication
- Social Network authentication
- Multi-factor authentication
- Passwordless authentication
Among these processes, Social Network Authentication is widely attracting the users as it allows them to access your app with a single touch if they have an account on any of these social networks.
Social Network Authentication
Social login is a type of SSO (Single Sign On) method, specially designed to simplify the login process and ensure a higher conversion rate for your app registrations. It allows users to access your app with a single touch if they have an account on any of these social networks.
It greatly enhances the user experience as well. You no need to worry about verifying the email addresses and security of user data since social networks have already done that jobs.
The benefits of adding Social Login to your apps:
- Increase registrations
- Access richer user profiles
- Up-to-date profiles
- Email is verified
- Single-click return experience
Social Login with Auth0
Social networks like Google, Facebook, Twitter, and other popular services provide their own systems of authentication. It is not feasible to add authentication for each network separately. Auth0 is a convenient and profitable solution that simplifies the whole process.
Auth0 is a secure service that ensures authentication and authorization functionality. Auth0 works based on tokens and uses different Identity providers. It fits on several platforms, including the most popular social networks, making it perfect for someone who needs to add social authentication for apps.
Auth0 is specially designed to help developers solve the problem by implementing an authentication service with the best features set. Auth0 provides Anomaly Detection, Universal Login Support, and Customizable Rules, which amplify protection for the end-users of any application. Implementing authentication tasks with Auth0 saves a significant amount of development time. This identity platform for app builders offers thousands of enterprises with universal identity platforms for their mobile, web, internal and IoT apps. Its extensible platform authenticates as well as secures billions of logins per month, making it loved by users and trusted by enterprises.
How does Auth0 work?
When you design the authentication process with Auth0 for your app, you need to decide whether the login flow should be based on the Universal Login method or Embedded Login.
Auth0 Universal login
With Universal Login, you can authenticate users through a central authorization server.
Image source: Auth0.com
In universal login, when a user attempts to log into any app, he is redirected to the Auth0 server, which validates the users’ identity. Universal Login is less complicated and easy to implement. Auth0 provides options, where all the user information is stored in the Auth0 server, or information, can be stored in the local database as well. As the Auth0 server manages all the login pages, the pages are more secure, consistent and easy to manage.
Auth0 Universal Login benefits include
- Enhanced administration
- Simplified user experience
- Increased authentication security
- Streamlined application integration
Auth0 Embedded Login
Image source: Auth0.com
In embedded login, users login directly into your app with text inputs, and they are transmitted to the Auth0 server for verification & login. This refers to a cross-origin request. If you have more than one app, you need to create more than one login page. This login includes implementation as well as security concerns due to cross-origin attackers. Though there are security concerns with this approach, Auth0 recommends using the ‘custom domain’ feature to overcome the cross-origin authentication issues.
This demands extensive testing to confirm that there are no loopholes through which a user’s information or login is not redirected or misused. You can read further on - 20 Scenarios for Testing login Pages & Search Functionalities
Conclusion
Auth0 guarantees enhanced security for the end-user and offers high-quality functionalities, which attracts developers. Centralized authentication with the Universal Login method is recommended over embedded login. Overall, to maintain a successful app, you need to add social login authentication with Auth0 to your app.
We recommend reading - Top 8 Best Practices to Develop Secure Mobile Apps
