Google+ Sign-In improvements

By Yaniv Yaakubovich, Product Manager, Google+

Cross-posted from the Google+ Developers Blog

Today we’re launching three updates to Google+ Sign-In, making it easier and more effective to include Google authentication in your app:

1. Support for all Google account types 
Google+ Sign-In now supports all Google account types, including Google Apps users, and users without a Google+ profile.

2. Easy migration from other auth methods 
If you’re using OpenID v2 or OAuth 2.0 Login for authentication and want to upgrade to Google+ Sign-In, we’ve made it easy to do so; it’s entirely your choice. Google+ Sign-In can grow your audience in multiple ways — including over-the-air installs, interactive posts, and cross-device sign-in — and now it’s fully compatible with the OpenID Connect standard. For more details, see our sign-in migration guide.

3. Incremental auth
Incremental auth is a new way to ask users for the right permission scopes at the right time, versus all permissions at once.

For example:

If your app allows users to save music playlists to Google Drive, you can ask for basic profile info at startup, and only ask for Google Drive permissions when they’re ready to save their first mix. 

Likewise: you can ask for Google Calendar permissions only when users RSVP to an event, and so on.

Now that incremental auth is available for Google+ Sign-In, we recommend asking for the minimum set of permissions up front, then asking for further permissions only when they’re required. This approach not only helps users understand how their information will be used in your app, it can also reduce friction and increase app engagement.

8Tracks only asks for the necessary permissions to get users started in their app.

Once in the app, 8Tracks prompts users to connect their YouTube account to get mix recommendations.

When users click ‘Connect Your YouTube account’, 8Tracks asks users for the additional YouTube permission.

If you have any questions, join our Developing with Google+ community, or tag your Stack Overflow posts with ‘google-plus’.


+Yaniv Yaakubovich is a Product Manager on the Google+ Platform team, working on Google+ Sign-in. When he is not working he enjoys reading and exploring California with his wife and son.

Posted by +Scott Knaster, Editor