There are many third-party login systems now; the common ones are Facebook, Google and SMS. However, all of these may have flaws which could cause authentication errors and could cause problems.
Many times these login systems cause to trigger a third-party pop-up window which sometimes causes a connection session timeout, which is not ideal for security purposes.
OTP-based logins are very popular. However, they face some common problems of OTPs not having a 100% delivery rate that may lead to login drop-offs.
So what’s the best solution?
Table of Contents
Implementing WhatsApp Login
WhatsApp is used by over 2 billion users worldwide, and it has already been a much-preferred substitute for text messaging. Moreover, WhatsApp is reliable as it depends on internet networks, not cellular ones.
The Whatsapp login authentication will make it easier for your mobile web users to log in without having to remember their passwords or enter their phone numbers or OTPs, giving them a seamless experience.
What’s the need for WhatsApp Login?
Millions of people endure the time-consuming login and authentication process each day. Users can currently log in by entering their mobile number, password, and OTP. As an alternative, they can sign in with their email or Facebook accounts.
A younger generation of users who don’t have Facebook profiles also frequently use phone numbers to sign up for services, and they occasionally use an email other than for this purpose.
What about mobile login through OTP verification?
It’s typical for the app to send a verification code through SMS to the specified number when a phone number is used to sign in. After entering that code, the user can establish an account.
In a multi-factor authentication system, when a user’s account information is paired with an additional step for added protection, this procedure can also be utilised when logging in.
Even though this procedure is simple to follow, SMS is not everyone’s preferred texting service, with WhatsApp being used by over 2 billion people.
Additionally, those without unlimited texting plans take care to minimise their usage of texting when possible.
To counter the limitations of SMS verification, the WhatsApp software development kit can come in as a handy solution. Apps can offer to send consumers their verification code using WhatsApp rather than text messaging after WhatsApp is incorporated into an iOS or Android app.
This makes it a lot easier for customers to sign up and log into your app or websites using just their WhatsApp phone number.
Login via WhatsApp Flow
So the flow of how we can implement this login system to any login requesting web application is frictionless and very easy to understand.
So from the above flow, you can easily tell that:
Step 1: The Web Application requests a unique login token from its database/server.
Step 2: The unique token from the server is sent to the web application.
Step 3: A WhatsApp Message is triggered to the registered user’s WhatsApp number.
Step 4: The WhatsApp Message is then pushed from the user to the WATI server.
Step 5: The WATI server sends the message to the web application’s server for validation.
Step 6: Triggers the result back to the WATI server.
Step 7: The Result is carried on as a WhatsApp message to the user to tell them if the login is valid/invalid.
Step 8: Login is then successful.
Finally, this is how the validation works when there is a login via WhatsApp, making the login system more user-friendly.
Difference between SMS OTP login vs WhatsApp login
SMS vs WhatsApp
It is not a guaranteed delivery mechanism. |
Guaranteed delivery of messages and safe. |
Delayed messages are widespread, and no guarantee that the text will reach the end-user. |
No delay in delivering messages; all messages would reach the user in under 5 seconds. |
SMS messages are very clustered and unorganised, not have a very user-friendly interface. |
Widely used application by Everyone in the industry and also user-friendly interface. |
Other benefits of implementing WhatsApp Login on your app?
- No encryption issue, like Google or Facebook.
- No waiting for OTP like in SMS.
- Do not have to type in anything and is hassle-free.
Instead of the traditional SMS OTP, WhatsApp also has the feature where you can trigger an OTP message to authenticate customer login to your app.
Using WhatsApp OTP for login
You may wonder why should you migrate from SMS OTP authentication to WhatsApp OTP. Well, it all boils down to popularity. If you serve customers in India and Brazil where WhatsApp is very popular, it’s a complete no-brainer to migrate to WhatsApp OTP authentication since it’s the preferred messaging platform.
Also since WhatsApp has over a 90% open rate, it would be ideal to switch all communication from SMS to WhatsApp to improve the user experience.
How safe is WhatsApp OTP login?
Instant messaging services like WhatsApp have end-to-end encryption that prevents anyone outside the sender and recipient from reading the messages. Although traditional institutions like banks may not feel confident using WhatsApp for sending OTPs since they are third-party providers unlike SMS messaging services provided directly by telecommunications operators.
Here is how ShopKhata did it?
Shopkhata enables small and medium business owners to launch their online stores and also manage their credit and debit records on their smartphones.
With a lot of their users being on WhatsApp, they decided to make use of the WhatsApp login option for seamless login.
This is a video explanation of how the ShopKhata app made their login system to log in via WhatsApp.
They have seen better login conversions with almost 70% of their users preferring to log in via WhatsApp than other log-in options. The login time was reduced to under 10 seconds on average.
Even online travel company Goibibo shared their learning on launching “Login with WhatsApp” and it’s nothing but positive.
To Sum Up
With WhatsApp being widely used by people around the globe, implementing WhatsApp Login to your app makes the user experience much better. It’s not just that, WhatsApp Business APIs are a great upgrade to any business that’s scaling and needs to meet its goals and customer needs. This is where WATI can help you.
About WATI
WATI is a product of Clare.AI and is WhatsApp’s Official API Partner. The WATI Platform currently allows you to create a WhatsApp Chatbot without coding. You can use the drag-and-drop chatbot builder or create a chatbot using keywords through WATI. To know more about WATI, visit the official website.