Registration: Require Email Verification?

[nelsonic]

Should we require people to confirm their email address by clicking a link we send to their email address?

[iteles]

I would argue that we should let people start using the app straight away after sign up to keep up the momentum of wanting to use the app. I feel strongly that breaking people away from that pattern to go to their inboxes then back to the app sits in the opposite corner of the ring to the simplicity we're going for.

There are reasons to have an email verification at some stage is a good thing - prevention of bots, ensuring people are actually the owner of the email address they're registering with - but this shouldn't mess with the flow at sign up.

Curious to see what other people think!

[iteles]

I would say we've agreed that people should be able to start using the app immediately after registration: #53
The second part of my comment (and I would say the challenge) is getting people to actually complete the email verification after they already been allowed to use the app. I know that I personally have deleted a fair few 'verify your email' emails because I didn't see the need now I could already use the app. This is a separate issue to be dealt with once the decision is made on whether verification should happen in the first place.

[nelsonic]

Oh, this is an easy thing to fix.
We add a reminder in the app to verify.
Which only goes away when they click the link.
Its a minor inconvenience, but it means they can keep their timers...
For people who used a fake email, we should allow them to update their email address and re-send the verification link to the "correct" email address. (this is a Post-MVP feature tho...)
Lets change the label on this issue to _Post_ and come back to it.

[iteles]

I currently don't see a need for a verification step. Most of the applications I have signed up to in the last 2 years (apart from government apps) have done away with this too.
I have decided against using apps in the past because I couldn't get right down to using them or most often, because the verification link didn't arrive right away.

Given that there will be an email and password already created at registration, I don't see this step as necessary for now. If we get too many spam emails or have issues with people losing access to their tasks/thoughts, then we can revisit this.