Tag: social login

Article

You could be able to log in to Facebook on this device using your smartphone’s Facebook client

Facebook Login Updated for tvOS, FireTV, Android | AdWeek SocialTimes

From the horse’s mouth

Facebook

Developer News Press Release

Improving Facebook Login For TV and Android

My Comments

A holy grail that is being achieved for online services is to allow users to authenticate with these services when using a device that has a limited user interface.

A typical smart-TV remote control that can only offer “pick-and-choose” or 12-key data entry

An example of this is a Smart TV or set-top device, where the remote control for these devices has a D-pad and a numeric keypad. Similarly, you have a printer where the only interface is a D-pad or touchscreen, with a numeric keypad only for those machines that have fax capabilities.

Here, it would take a long time to enter one’s credentials for these services due to the nature of the interface. This is down to a very small software keyboard on a touchscreen, using “SMS-style” text entry on the keypad or “pick-and-choose” text entry using the D-pad.

Facebook initially looked at this problem by displaying an authentication code on the device’s user interface or printing this code out when you want to use it from that device. Then you go to a Web-enabled computer or mobile device and log in to facebook.com/device and transcribe that code in to the page to authenticate the device with Facebook.

Here, they are realising that these devices have some role with the Social Web, whether to permit single sign-on, allow you to view photos on your account or use it as part of a comment trail. But they also know that most of us are working our Facebook accounts from our smartphones or tablets very frequently and are doing so with their native mobile client app.

But they are taking a leaf out of DIAL (DIscovery And Launch) which is being used as a way to permit us to throw YouTube or Netflix sessions that we start on our mobile devices to the big screen via our home networks. It avoids a long rigmarole of finding a “pairing screen” on both the large-screen and mobile apps, then transcribing a PIN or association code from the large screen to the mobile client to be able to have it on the TV screen,

This is where you will end up authenticating that big-screen app’s Facebook login request

What Facebook are now doing for the 4th generation Apple TV (tvOS) and Android-based TV/video peripheral platforms (Android TV / Amazon FireTV) is to use the mobile client app to authenticate.

Here, you use a newer version of the Facebook mobile client, the Facebook Lite client or the Google Chrome Custom Tabs to authenticate with the big screen across the home network. The TV or set-top device, along with the mobile device running the Facebook mobile client both have to be on the same logical network which would represent most small networks. It is irrespective of how each device is physically connected to the network such as a mobile device using Wi-Fi wireless and the Apple TV connected via HomePlug AV500 powerline to the router for reliability.

What will happen is that the TV app that wants to use Facebook will show an authentication code on the screen. Then you go to the “hamburger” icon in your Facebook mobile client and select “Device Requests” under Apps. There will be a description of the app and the device that is wanting you to log in, along with the authentication code you saw an the TV screen. Once you are sure, you would tap “Confirm” to effectively log in from the big screen.

At the moment, this functionality is being rolled out to tvOS and Android-based devices with them being the first two to support the addition and improvement of application programming interfaces. But I would see this being rolled out for more of the Smart TV, set-top box and similar device platforms as Facebook works through them all.

This kind of single-sign-on could apply to your Smart TV

One issue that may have to crop up would be to cater for group scenarios, which is a reality with consumer electronics that end up being used by all of the household. Here, software developers may want to allow multiple people to log in on the same device, which may be considered important for games with a multiplayer element, or to allow multiple users to be logged in but with one user having priority over the device at a particular time like during an on-screen poll or with a photo app.

Another question that could be raised is where Facebook is used as the “hub” of a user’s single-sign-on experience. Here, an increasing number of online services including games are implementing Facebook as one of the “social sign-on” options and the improved sign-on experience for devices could be implemented as a way to permit this form of social sign-on across the apps and services offered on a Smart TV for example. It could subsequently be feasible to persist current login / logout / active-user status across one device with all the apps following that status.

Other social-media, messaging or similar platforms can use this technology as a way to simplify the login process for client-side devices that use very limited user interfaces. This is especially where the smartphone becomes the core device where the user base interacts with these platforms frequently.

Spotify login screen with option to login using Facebook

A trend that is being associated with online services or applications is to provide “social sign-on” for new and existing users of these services. This is based around the concept of single sign-on where you use one set of credentials verified by one service to authenticate with one or more other services. This time, the credential pool that is used for authenticating users is your membership with a social network like Facebook or Twitter. The expression is sometimes extended to cover other authentication-data pools like Microsoft’s authentication services associated with Outlook.com/Hotmail, Windows 8 or XBox; or Google’s authentication services used for GMail and YouTube.

TripAdvisor webpage with social sign-on and personalisation from Facebook

In a social sign-on arrangement, your credentials are held and tested at the social-network’s servers and both the online service and the social network create a unique “token” or “key” to link and authenticate your presence on these services. The common methods that these services use are based around the OAuth or OpenID protocols used for single sign-on across multiple services.

Social sign-on concept diagram – relationship between the social network and online service

As well, your social attributes (name, birthdate, etc) that you have stored on the social network’s servers would be copied in to your account on the online service when this account is being provisioned. You will know about this when your social network pops up a screen asking you whether to allow the online service to gain access to your details held at the social network.

Advantages

There are some key advantages with using a social sign-on setup.

One is to benefit from a simplified provisioning process for your online service. This is without the need to key in the same data across multiple services. It also includes use of a pre-authenticated email address which is considered of high value with forums, commenting facilities and the like because most social networks especially Facebook, Google and Microsoft implement strong measures to combat fraudulent identities.

We also benefit because there are fewer sets of credentials to remember. As well, if a social network implements improved user-security measures like multifactor authentication or “trusted-device” operation, this flows on to the online service we use.

Some of the online services also can provide a personalised experience such as granting you birthday wishes on your birthday, including making those “special birthdays” such as the “big zeros” or the 21sts highly special.

Disadvantages

The disadvantages that can occur include weak links in the authentication protocols and a total dependence on access to and the security of a particular social-network account.

This also encompasses situations where a workplace or school may implement measures to shut out access to social networks in the name of productivity or an oppressive regime may shut out access to the popular social networks to curtail free speech. This can limit access to the online service because of its dependence on the social network.

How can it be operated properly

To assure users of their privacy, a social sign-on setup needs to identify any attributes that it is obtaining from a social network and give the user consent to obtain the attributes. As well, the login procedure should allow for one to create a login that is independent of a social network whether in conjunction with a social-network presence or not.

Similarly, the concept of social sign-on could be exploited by social networks and other authentication services to support simple-but-secure login for living-room applications. This is, from my experience, something that needs to be worked on because such devices require a lot of “pick-and-choose” data entry using a remote control’s D-pad to enter user credentials for online services. As well, many different users are likely to use the same living-room device.