Has Google outstripped Facebook as a default App login option?

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While interacting with our smartphones, we’re constantly making decisions - some subconscious, while others are well thought through. One such decision is choosing from the options provided by an app to login/signup post first time installation. We ran a short survey to understand which login options people prefer and the reasons behind it. We received responses from urban males and females, aged between 18–55 years or older.

Overall, about 42% people prefer using a Google account to login. They choose this option because they feel it’s easy, convenient, secure and anyway “Google knows it all”- all their data is synced and they don’t need to remember any passwords or type their details again.

“Google has been the centre of my digital footprint hence it’s easy to remember all digital accounts with my Gmail id.” (Male, 35–44 years)

The second most chosen option was logging in using phone number and OTP because it’s considered easy, secure and phone numbers are easier to remember.

“This method allows- security without compromising privacy.” (Female, 45–54 years)

But what about Facebook?

Surprisingly, Facebook- world’s largest social media platform, was the least favourite option with less than 5% people choosing it. A few mentioned that they prefer Facebook because they don’t use it anymore and would rather use a dormant account to login to a new app.

“Facebook is easy to sync but my account is not up to date with my info because I don’t use it regularly and hence I use it to login only.” (Female, 26–34 years)

Is Google preferred regardless of the kind of app?

When it came to choosing a login method for different kinds of apps, yet again Google emerged as the users’ first preference followed by phone number and OTP.

It was the most preferred option for logging into Lifestyle Apps , E-commerce apps , Productivity apps, Entertainment Apps and even Social Media Apps. Using an email id and password was the second preferred method to login in to Social media apps.

Interestingly, the decision changed in the case of Financial apps (Banking, UPI, Wallet, Investment) where users mostly preferred to use Phone number and OTP, followed by the option to create a username and password exclusive to a particular app. They did not want to use their Google/Facebook accounts to avoid potential leak of confidential information.

“ I use distinct credentials for each app, so that there’s no crossover risk of data breach in any one system, especially on Financial platforms.” (Male, 35–44 years)

Using a Google account is easy, fast and omnipresent

We also asked users to rate the various login options on a Likert scale of 1–5, based on the following parameters-

1. Ease of use- Using a Google account is considered the easiest way to login followed by Phone number and OTP. Creating a username and password is considered the most cumbersome among the five choices
2. Speed of logging in- Google is believed to help you login the fastest and creating a username and password takes the longest to signup and hence considered the slowest
3. Ubiquity- Though Google is considered most ubiquitous, Email and using a Facebook account come second
4. Safety- While providing phone number, email or creating a username and password are all considered safe, Facebook is assumed to be most unsafe

So the next time you design the onboarding experience for a new app, you login to a new app, ponder over why you chose the option that you did.