Many times in the stories of technology startups you read, there is a repeated story that they improved one small thing and suddenly sales took off, because previously people would simply leave after a few seconds.
I personally think that many URLs for Internet Identity could be something like this.
Some apps using https://identity.internetcomputer.org
Some https://identity.ic0.app
People after registering on one address do not understand why the other one does not work, and attempts to export/switch are forcing them to make an effort that they do not want to make according to UX laws.
So is it possible to remove one of them?
I will write down other things that also bother me from a UX point of view:
- the browser does not always remember our number in input field
- browsers often block pop-up windows
- after such a blockade, when we agree to open the pop-up - there will be a login error, you have to close the pop-up window and repeat the operation from the beginning
Popups being blocked is a common issue with any popup window (especially in safari) if not opened synchronously in a click event.
Technically speaking this shouldn’t happen if implemented by the dapp correctly, if it does happen I would recommend to contact the dapp devs about it.
In case a popup is opened at a later point by disabling the block, it is currently technically not possible as far as I’m aware to establish communication between the dapp and the popup window due to browser limitations.
As for the multiple urls for II, this is related to a technical limitation of the browser webauthn API (also more commonly known these days as passkeys). Basically each passkey is scoped to the url of the website, you can’t share it across multiple urls.
Since II was at some point available on multiple urls, removing any of these urls would likely lock existing users with passkeys out of their II, since these passkeys won’t be available on the other urls.
This is also why I highly recommend everyone to add a recovery method to their II, you can’t be fully certain you’ll always have access to your passkeys (e.g. losing access to apple account or windows device).
Nonetheless both these things are frustrating and common feedback on the forum. That as far as I’ve heard are ongoing work, this post is mostly a technical explanation what’s behind them.
Thank you for your detailed answer!
Single URL:
A migration campaign could be done to standardize the URL. In the unwanted address we would get the information: In some time this address will cease to be valid - please click here to transfer the account to the correct address.
The later it is done the harder it will be to implement, please let’s do it now while experts are interested in blockchain, before adoption reaches ordinary companies.