TL;DR The Restore Credentials API addresses the frustration of being logged out of apps when switching Android devices.
By implementing this API to transfer login tokens silently, Uber estimates it will eliminate 4 million manual logins annually for its users.
While Uber is a prime example, more developers need to adopt this API for Android to fully rival the seamless restore experience of iPhones.
Last year, Google introduced the Restore Credentials API within Android’s Credential Manager, aiming to solve one of the most significant friction points of switching phones: Getting logged out of all your apps. A year later, Google has shared an update on how this has progressed, and this small change has helped Uber reduce manual logins by an estimated 4 million logins per year!
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Android’s app restore problem and its solution One area where iPhones excel over Android is the app data migration process when switching phones. On iPhones, iOS transfers practically all apps and data, including app sign-in state (except for banking apps), seamlessly, giving users the feeling that they never switched phones.
When switching between Android devices, Android transfers apps and some app data, but drops the login credentials, forcing users to log in to all their apps again to receive notifications. So even though users migrate their data to their new Android flagship, many of their apps have essentially “reset” themselves. Things don’t “just work” anymore on your new phone — you have to start all your apps manually, sign back into them, and set them up once again.
This is where Android’s Restore Credentials API comes into the picture. Thanks to this, users can seamlessly log back into the app whenever they switch devices and restore their data.
App developers can also allow users to silently log back into the app as soon as the restore is completed, enabling them to even receive notifications without needing to open the app on the new device.
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