February 15, 2022
Posted by Rohey Livne, Product Manager
Google Identity Services (GIS)
At Google, keeping users safe online is our top priority, so we continuously invest in new tools and features to keep their personal information secure.
In August 2021, we launched a new family of Identity APIs called Google Identity Services (GIS), which consolidates multiple identity offerings under one web software development kit (SDK). This SDK includes the Sign in with Google button as well as One Tap, a low-friction authentication prompt. Sign in with Google and One Tap use secure tokens, rather than passwords, to sign users into sites and apps.
Today we are announcing the addition of an authorization feature, all under the same unified Google Identity Services SDK, which further increases the value of our suite of identity solutions and makes it simpler for developers to implement.
Caption: Authorization screen with individual consent options
What's new
The updated library now provides a ‘one-stop-shop’ for developers across both authentication and authorization. Authentication enables new user sign ups and returning user sign ins, while authorization allows developers to receive an access token to call Google APIs, with the user’s consent.
To provide developers with more control, the new SDK supports a clear separation between authentication and authorization moments. This enables partners to make authentication and authorization calls as two separate and distinct flows based on the needs of the site or app.
Benefits
The new SDK uses browser-based pop-up dialogues, which reduces user friction on sites and apps, streamlines authentication and authorization flows, and increases user engagement.
In addition, the removal of automatic refresh of expired access tokens enhances the overall security of the flows, requiring an end user to explicitly refresh their session, preventing long standing tokens from being used for unintended purposes.
Furthermore, the new consolidated library reduces integration complexity minimizing development time and effort. To simplify integration even further, we provide pre-scripted easy to use code snippets that can be copied and pasted directly onto partner sites.
Users who take advantage of Google’s authentication or authorization flows benefit from Google’s leading security infrastructure, offering two factor authentication, password recovery flows, and have the peace of mind that all sites and apps with authorization enabled, have been verified by Google.
We continue to improve our solutions as part of the migration to Google Identity Services (GIS), so look out for more capabilities added throughout the year.
To take advantage of the new Google Identity Services (GIS) library, head over to Google’s Developer site and click on the ‘Get Started’ button for access to technical documentation.
