# social-login

Source: https://startwithidentity.com/glossary/social-login/
Last updated: 2026-08-29
License: content by Start with Identity. Cite the source URL.

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Letting users sign in with an existing account from a provider like Google or Apple, usually over OIDC. Reduces signup friction but ties accounts to third-party providers.

Social login raises conversion measurably and creates a dependency worth understanding: account recovery, email changes, and provider policy shifts now happen outside your control, and a user who loses the upstream account may lose yours. Support at least one path that does not depend on a third party, and never key your user records solely on an email address the provider can change.

See also: [OpenID Connect](https://startwithidentity.com/standards/openid-connect/), [what is CIAM](https://startwithidentity.com/guides/fundamentals/what-is-ciam/), [progressive profiling](https://startwithidentity.com/glossary/progressive-profiling/), [CIAM vendors](https://startwithidentity.com/vendors/ciam/)