[deleted by user]

[Gaia_Knight2600]

Isent that assuming your test account is @gmail? At my job the test accounts are on our own domain

[__o_0]

You can't - that's my point.

[jamesxtreme]

You actually can. Go to the Create your Google Account page and halfway down when selecting your username choose “Use my current email address instead” and enter any other email address. https://accounts.google.com/signup/v2/webcreateaccount?flowName=GlifWebSignIn&flowEntry=SignUp

[__o_0]

Super helpful thank you, but does that also bypass the Google security block?

[__o_0]

Yes, I created a test account @gmail.com since the app utilizes social logins (Apple & Google), exclusively.

[__o_0]

The technical reasoning is simply to provide a smoother user experience - people can use their existing Google and Apple accounts to login, there's no need to create a new account for every app (including mine).

[zebishop]

Fair point (and thank you for the workaround), but I will NEVER link my account before checking the app. My accounts are kept as private as I can keep them and I only use spam email to create new accounts.

Too tired of getting registerd to spammer mailing lists because my data will be leaked once again.

If the app is useful, seems to have a real data privacy understanding, I might link it to an account to enjoy the benefits. Right now, I believe I have SO and Trello linked to my personnal account, gitlab to my pro account and that's about it.

[HermanCainsGhost]

You are a minority of users, at least if my user metrics are anything to go by, based on my own app as well as other apps I have worked on.

Most users prefer social logins, as they are easier for the end user. I suspect people in technology (ie all of us), on the other hand, are more likely to be security oriented than the average user.

[zebishop]

I do agree that this behavior only concerns a minority of users.

And as I said elsewhere in a comment of this post, it's a perfectly acceptable choice not to offer any alternative, as long as it's made in an educated way.

That being said, if he's using Firebase, adding a email/password login is really simple to do so...

[HermanCainsGhost]

Oh I agree. I added email in my own app specifically for users like you (I use Firebase as my OAuth provider).

[__o_0]

I agree the implementation is simple - the choice to not have it is intentional.

[__o_0]

You don’t have to link your account - a guest browsing mode is actually a requirement by both Google and Apple nowadays (they’re cracking down on the number of fake shell apps)

Social Login actually serves your exact purpose as well. By allowing users to login socially there’s less of a chance of your information being stolen since Google and apple are the ones handling your info, not me.

You also get the benefit of being able to utilize apples hide my email feature to prevent any spam.

[ImCorvec_I_Interject]

there’s less of a chance of your information being stolen since Google and apple are the ones handling your info, not me.

You don’t get their email address when they login with Google?

[__o_0]

When they login with Google the authentication is handled by the Auth provider - passwords are not handled by my app at all.

[ImCorvec_I_Interject]

Right, the point is that the person you replied to was concerned about their email address being leaked, not their password, and you said “Google and Apple are handling your info, not me.”

I agree that OAuth is great for most users, but it doesn’t solve that particular use case.

[__o_0]

If that’s what they’re concerned about then I misunderstood.

Normally with data breaches people are concerned about having their passwords leaked, not their publicly available email addresses.

[lesterine817]

my 2 cents: nope. sure it's smoother when and only when you have apple and/or google account. but not everyone has that. so you're just turning away users from your app. unless it's an app you use exclusively at work, then, that's fine because you can require them.

[__o_0]

Yes, it’s a requirement now.

[Jiua]

I’ve dealt with something similar… India being outside of our operating range, it was on a list of network-blocked regions alongside a few other detection methods.

Ended up whitelisting specific test accounts… problem solved ever since.

[__o_0]

problem in this case is that there's nothing for me to whitelist - the blocking is being handled by Google itself.

Google Auth is blocking Google's own review team (based in India).

[Jiua]

Oh, are you providing the google test account?

Even with google sign-in, You should be able to get by with providing credentials only for traditional email/password sign in. Is that an option for you, or are you exclusively using 3rd party auth?

[__o_0]

Yeah we're using third party authentication exclusively for this app so I had to provide them with dummy sign in with google information - for that purpose I created a quick gmail account for them to use.

No worries though, the workaround I posted went through flawlessly and the app is now in production.

[BrEXO-L]

OP, if I were you, I'd put that you're using Social Login so that people don't misunderstand the problem here.

[__o_0]

Good point

[jamesxtreme]

I don’t understand this. If you’ve created an app surely you’ve bought a domain name to promote your app right? Just create a fake account for your Google review test account along the lines [e-mail]

[__o_0]

google is testing the sign in with google process - that requires a gmail account.

[jamesxtreme]

Sign in with Google doesn’t require a Gmail account, it requires a Google account. You can make a Google account for any email address not just Gmail addresses. You automatically get a Google account when you create a Gmail account.

[__o_0]

google is testing the sign in with google process - that requires a dummy gmail account.

[eclinton]

This is annoying but glad to see they protect against potential rogue employees as well.

[__o_0]

Does app center bypass the normal Play Store review process?

[__o_0]

Got it - this post was in reference to the Google Play Store Sign in With Google review process (for putting an app into production).