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Google Follows Apple Lead To Restore App Login Credentials

While the NSA has been advising users of both iPhone and Android smartphones to reset their devices on a weekly basis, users will likely balk at the idea, not least because having to log back into multiple apps and services is such a monumental pain in the ass. A new posting to the Google Android developers blog has confirmed that account restoration is to get easier thanks to a new restore credentials function of Android’s credential manager application programming interface. Here’s what you need to know.

Introducing Android’s Restore Credentials Feature For Google App Developers

In a posting to the official Android developer blog,a Google developer relations engineer, Neelansh Sahai, has confirmed that a new feature within the Android credential manager API will allow for apps to “seamlessly onboard users to their accounts on a new device after they restore their apps and data from their previous device.” Given that, according to Google, some 40% of people in the U.S. either reset or replace their smartphones every year, this is actually quite a big deal. As someone who is part of that 40%, I am indeed grateful that my Android smartphone will soon be as simple as my iPhone when it comes to restoring app credentials following a reset. “When users get a new phone,” Sahai said, “the friction of re-entering login credentials can lead to frustration, app abandonment, and churn.” I would add that any friction in the restoring of app credentials can also lead to less than optimum password complexity and the sharing of these weaker passwords across apps and services.

This new move from Google, which in many ways is very similar to the way that iOS apps can get access to specific credentials stored within the iCloud Keychain, also makes it as easy as possible for the developers of an app to transfer a credential restore key from one device to another.

Benefits Of The Google Android Restore Credentials Tool

Although I’m not sure I would go as far as describing any login experience as being delightful, the word used by Sahai for the credentials restore experience, anything that makes restoring a device easier while retaining application security is a winner in my books. “Users will continue being signed in as they were on their previous device,” Sahai said, “and they will be able to get notifications to easily access their content without even needing to open the app on the new device.”

The benefits include, Sahai said:

Users can easily transition to a new Android device.

Users get immediate engagement with notifications or other prompts.

If developers are using a backup agent, the users can be automatically logged back in after data restoration is complete.

If a backup agent isn’t being used, the app can check for a restore key upon first launch and then log the user in automatically.

The system leverages the same server-side implementation used for passkeys.

I look forward to this new feature finding its way into all my apps and congratulate Google for the move, albeit having taken longer than I would have liked to finally arrive.

Source: Google Follows Apple Lead To Restore App Login Credentials

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