

Ask HN: How Many of Prefer Social Media Sign Up Over Regular Sign Up? - haidrali

I am developing a android based application and was thinking that now a days people prefer social media sign up over regular sign up. Am i right or you think other way around<p>Please share your thoughts 
Thanks
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ProblemFactory
You should investigate this further based on the expected user demographics of
your app. I would expect that most people who post on Hacker News avoid all
social login as much as possible for privacy reasons, while many other user
groups may prefer it to creating new accounts everywhere out of convenience.

Note that any Android phone which is able to access Google Play also must have
a Google (GMail) account set up, and you can use this to authenticate the user
with minimal effort: [http://developer.android.com/google/play-
services/index.html](http://developer.android.com/google/play-
services/index.html)

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ilconsigliere
I'll go to great lengths to avoid social sign ups. I want nothing linked to
those accounts. It mostly comes from distrust of app behavior. I don't want
any app blasting anything to my entire contact lists. This might be an
irrational concern but its real. I'll use Google account to sign up for any
service BC I know Google won't let an app run wild w my contacts. Other
services I am not so confident

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amarcus
If HN isn't your target demographic, the answers here are going to be really
skewed. Social signup is very much preferred (we have a number of iOS &
Android apps targeting consumers) and social login makes up around 82%.

~~~
haidrali
82% is really a astonishing number, i think now a days people don't want to
fill up long sign up forms ( who has time for it ) that's why they prefer
social sign up ....

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mod
I prefer the opposite, I do not like being nervous about your app posting to
my social media, nor do I want to have social media accounts forever.

~~~
haidrali
Thanks for opinion

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brudgers
I prefer no signup to both.

For me, if there isn't an obvious and strong value proposition, I don't want
to be bothered by crap in my feed or spam in my inbox.

To put it another way, for any particular app, I probably don't care about it,
so why would I want communication from it?

~~~
sheraz
Totally agree with this point.

Asking users for too much information up-front will put them off your app
before they even get into the first screens.

I'm working on a couple of projects where this conversation has come up. After
some qualitative interviews with our target group, it became abundantly clear
that this group (under 40 urbanites) are increasingly aware of privacy issues
and social signups. They specifically cited Spotify as the culprit. Turns out
there were some closed OneDirection fans, and Spotify outed them using social
playlists.

So if you are going to ask for that info, please tell the user WHY that info
is necessary, and WHY it will make a better user experience.

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nmjohn
If a site doesn't offer an alternative form of sign up, I won't use it. Github
and twitter oauth are exceptions though, all of that data is already public.

However, there is virtually no reason at all not to offer both - and then
everybody wins.

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dragonwriter
I rather strongly prefer Google Account integration to most other signup
options ( _particularly_ for a specifically Android-based app), but I'd prefer
service-specific signup to most "social" options.

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ramenable
This would probably make a pretty good poll. You can create a poll at
[https://news.ycombinator.com/newpoll](https://news.ycombinator.com/newpoll)
if you have more than 200 karma (I don't :( yet)

If anyone does create the poll, it might be more valuable to have options to
vote on individual social network.

For e.g. these could be poll options

\- I never sign up through Social Media

\- Twitter Only

\- Facebook only

\- LinkedIn only

\- Google Plus only

\- Any social media would be fine for me

~~~
haidrali
I too don't have ;)

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nperez
All of my social media postings are public and I disable permissions for apps
to automatically post publicly, so I don't have a problem with signing up
through Facebook. If it were something very private, I might think
differently. I don't have a problem with my Yelp and Facebook account being
associated, for example. Pretty sure everyone on Facebook knows that I eat
food already.

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mercnet
I prefer having both options. I first try out social media sign up and verify
the permissions the app requesting. If the permissions scare me, I sign up
with my, e.g. myname+appname@gmail.com.

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mouselover
I personally use a "dummy" email for whenever I sign up to something that
looks interesting. Only after I might use my real e-mail. But to answer your
question I prefer e-mail.

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coralreef
Depends if I trust the app or not, and what that app is for (if using
twitter/facebook makes the app experience better).

I've no problem signing up using social media accounts.

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MichaelBurge
I use Google signup, but none of the other providers.

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haris4063
I prefer social media sign up

