AnyList lists problems with “Signing in with Apple” that made them not adopt the feature

A new blog post AnyList (app for creating and sharing lists of all types) explains some reasons why the company responsible for it will not implement the feature “Signing in with Apple” (Sign in with Apple) on your platform.

The AnyList team felt obligated to provide their opinion on the technology since, starting today, Apple will apply a new rule in the App Store demanding that developers make their apps compatible with the company’s login system – that is , if they provide third-party login options.

Sign in with Apple

After “considering the merits of Signing in with Apple,” AnyList decided to do not support the feature for some very pertinent reasons that affect both users and developers.

Various login methods

First, the AnyList staff explains that “Logging in with Apple” is more of a login method amid the various options that exist, from different companies. This creates, in their perspective, a tangle of accounts and passwords that only confuse users, rather than facilitating the login process.

People don’t remember which login system they used to create their account. (“Hmm, I created this account a few years ago. Did I use my email address? Facebook account? Did I sign in with Apple?”).

Simple questions like “How do I reset my password?” no longer have simple answers and depend on which system you used to create your account, if you remember. If you run out of access to your account and use a third-party login system, we may not be able to help you and, instead, we will need to direct you to another company, with all the problems that this entails.

ICloud.com accounts

They also raised specific problems with Apple’s login method, including the fact that many Apple IDs use iCloud.com addresses.

Many of these iCloud email addresses are unused, because a customer’s “real” email account is Gmail, Yahoo or Hotmail. If we try to contact a customer using the iCloud address, they may never see our message.

“Hide my Email”

As if the question above was not enough, the option “Hide my Email” – which allows you to hide the original email when logging into an app with “Sign in with Apple” – just complicates things. AnyList developers explain:

If a customer contacts us for support and we need to look for something in their account, we will usually do so through your account email address. But with “Hide my Email” this would not be possible, as the customer would need to find out the private email address used to login.

This same feature also affects one of the features of AnyList, such as sharing lists with family and friends:

With the “Hide my Email” option, your family or friends will obviously not know your private email address; therefore, when they enter your email address, our systems will believe that you do not have an account.

Complexity and costs

At the developers’ tip, the AnyList folks list a few reasons that don’t make “Logging in with Apple” advantageous enough to implement in your iOS app; among them, is the fact that the method would also have to be added to your web app and in versions for macOS and Android.

Don’t just add the feature to our iOS app. We also need to add it to our web, Mac and Android app […]. So if we choose to support “Sign in with Apple” support, it means that we need to spend significant time to make it work anywhere, instead of improving the functionality of our app.

More precisely, one of the complaints made by them is that Apple does not indicate how to implement the feature on Android devices; this is a wrong statement, after all Apple provides instructions on this page for developers on this page – basically, it follows, on Android, the same web standard.

It is worth noting that Apple is not obliged to developers to adopt their login method, however, if an app offers any other third party option (such as Facebook, Google, etc.), it must also add the “Sign in with Apple” – the company also suggests / recommends that your option appear above the others.

In the case of AnyList, they solved this problem by removing the Facebook login option, which was the only way to register in the app without entering your email. As a result, they are exempt from having to comply with Apple’s new rule.


AnyList app icon: Grocery Shopping List

via 9to5Mac