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Explainer https://github.com/samuelgoto/email-verification-protocol Specification https://dickhardt.github.io/email-verification/draft-hardt-email-verification.html Design docs https://code.sgo.to/2024/10/25/verified-email-autocomplete.html Summary The EVP (email verification protocol) helps users create, access and recover accounts by providing cryptographic proof of ownership seamlessly rather than email OTPs manually. Blink component Blink>Identity Web Feature ID Missing feature TAG review We filed an early TAG review ~6 months ago and got an "ambivalent" assessment: https://github.com/w3ctag/design-reviews/issues/1169 One of the main asks was take part of the spec to IETF (which would be able to assess parts of the proposal better), which we have started the process by writing and circulating the following draft, as well as finding the appropriate groups: https://dickhardt.github.io/email-verification/draft-hardt-email-verification.html TAG review status Pending Origin Trial Name Email Verification Protocol Goals for experimentation There is much that we'd like to learn in origin trials, because there are multiple moving parts here. First, we'd like to gather evidence of developer demand and API fitness: is autocomplete a good entry point? what kinds of forms and UXs are out there? does the benefit developers get outweigh the cost of implementation? Second, we'd like to gather evidence if email providers are incentivized too. What's in it for them? Is the backend API appropriate? Third, we'd like to gather data on how users interact with the UX implementation: will users accept the prompt? do they expect the token to be shared during form submission or email selection? Fourth, we'd love to learn if other browsers empathize with the user and ecosystem pain too, and if the implementation choices we made are transferable to their architectures too. Fifth, more broadly, email verification is at the center of a lot of identity flows, so we'd like to learn how it might relate to other mechanisms, such as federation, phone number verification and password/passkey management. Chromium Trial Name EmailVerificationProtocol Origin Trial documentation link https://github.com/samuelgoto/email-verification-protocol WebFeature UseCounter name kEmailVerificationProtocol Risks Interoperability and Compatibility No information provided Gecko: Neutral (https://github.com/mozilla/standards-positions/issues/1316) We filed for an early review before we had all of the information for Mozilla to make a proper assessment. We think we understand better the proposal now than we did 6 months ago, so we are planning to re-open the standard position request and try to offer clarity that was lacking. WebKit: No signal (https://github.com/WebKit/standards-positions/issues/578) We haven't formally gotten a review from Webkit, but we got some informal feedback last TPAC with their preference to augment WebOTP / one-time-codes and OTPs. We believe this alternative isn't necessarily mutually exclusive and can work symbiotically with what's being proposed. We expanded on that here: https://github.com/samuelgoto/email-verification-protocol#webotp-otps-vs-evts-and-imap Web developers: Positive This API requires participation by websites and email providers. We successfully ran a devtrial with a few partners which we expect will join us running an original trial. Based on what we heard so far, we are optimistic this will hit a sweet spot with website authors, but that we'd like to gather further evidence of developer demand and API fitness in an actual production setup. Other signals: Ergonomics We think a declarative autocomplete API strikes the right balance for developers and users. There are a series of other variations that we have explored and are open to revisiting listed here: https://github.com/samuelgoto/email-verification-protocol#website-api Activation https://github.com/samuelgoto/email-verification-protocol#activation-considerations Security https://github.com/samuelgoto/email-verification-protocol#security-considerations WebView application risks Does this intent deprecate or change behavior of existing APIs, such that it has potentially high risk for Android WebView-based applications? No information provided Reason this experiment is being extended First, it took us a bit more than we were expecting to resolve a privacy and UX discussion (opt-ins vs opt-outs) and that delayed our implementation on Android, which just released recently, so we haven't gotten enough data on how it performs against real users. We also iterated in our "loading" UX a couple of times (from inline indicators to browser toasts) and we are still working on that implementation on Android (we already implemented that on Desktop, and just recently released it). Second, we are also tightening up the implementation and specification of the email verification process for websites, which gets much harder to change after we launch (because there are a lot of relying parties). We are still making more backwards incompatible changes than we'd like, as a result of developer feedback, although the API has been stable for the last 2 branch cuts: https://developer.chrome.com/blog/email-verification-october-2026 Finally, we'd like to extend the origin trial is to allow us to gather in-person feedback and guidance from TPAC and IETF, which are happening just a couple of weeks after our original OT ended. Ongoing technical constraints No information provided Debuggability Still being developed. Basic error messages in the developer console available. Will this feature be supported on all six Blink platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux, ChromeOS, Android, and Android WebView)? No Is this feature fully tested by web-platform-tests? No Not currently available. DevTrial instructions https://github.com/WICG/email-verification-protocol/blob/main/HOWTO.md Flag name on about://flags #email-verification-protocol Finch feature name EmailVerificationProtocol Requires code in //chrome? True Measurement https://chromestatus.com/metrics/feature/timeline/popularity/5916 We also have a number of UMA metrics under Blink.Evp.* Estimated milestones Origin trial desktop first 150 Origin trial desktop last 156 Origin trial extension 1 end milestone 160 Origin trial Android first 154 Origin trial Android last 156 Link to entry on the Chrome Platform Status https://chromestatus.com/feature/5205725253074944?gate=5197139801145344 Links to previous Intent discussions Intent to Prototype: https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/d/msgid/blink-dev/68bb77c8.050a0220.257801.0191.GAE%40google.com Intent to Experiment: https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/d/msgid/blink-dev/CAMtUnc6OnWhdO%3D2hVznNzD_-YOfxVafLTAKCiSSzwN%3D5%3Dxm%2BuA%40mail.gmail.com This intent message was generated by Chrome Platform Status. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "blink-dev" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/d/msgid/blink-dev/6ac81275.6e0b2b3a.151e33.03fa.GAE%40google.com.
