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  • I am using recaptcha v2 invisible on my Nuxt SSR website with the help of this module
  • I added it to my login, signup, forgot password and reset password pages

3 Recaptcha Error Conditions

  • There are 3 types of conditions I need to handle
  • First one, when the recaptcha failed on the frontend (either when Google magically determines you are a bot or you are really bad at identifying traffic signals and bicycles)
  • Second one, when the recaptcha has expired, maybe it asked you to identify traffic signals while you were eating a burger
  • Third one, when the recaptcha token actually fails verification on the backend. You are supposed to ideally send the token to your backend server where you again verify it

My question

  • How to handle these errors?
  • Should I tell the user that this is a recaptcha error or tell something went wrong in a generic manner

What am I doing currently? Condition 1

enter image description here

Condition 2

Not sure what to do for condition 3 enter image description here

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1 Answer 1

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(re)Captcha is just a tool you are using to identify if the user is human and users don't care how you try to do that as long as it isn't bugging them too much. The tool itself doesn't mention it is called reCaptcha to the user (only as a disclaimer), it just says "Select all squares with traffic lights". Most people don't know why it is needed or only understand it partially, but this way it is acceptably accessible.

With the error messages it is advisable to follow that principle and keep that acceptably accessible too. It isn't relevant to call it reCaptcha and it isn't relevant to mention if it did fail, expire, explode or whatever went wrong in the backend. All what is relevant is what to do next: try again or contact support. reCaptcha is helping you, not your users. When it fails you are dealing with a robot or you're punishing a user unnecessarily. In that case you want to be informed about the error and give (human) users a link and/or phone number to contact support. Also keep the error message short and functional and leave the appologies to support.

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  • still it brings the context into question, you just selected a bunch of traffic signals and then suddenly see a popup saying "oops we had an error, contact support" doesnt make much sense
    – PirateApp
    Oct 1, 2021 at 6:48
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    But the user should have been able to log in right? reCaptcha failed in that case to recognize a real person, it has no other purpose and the reason it failed isn't relevant for the user. There is not much context you can add to explain that except that something went wrong in the attempt of the user to log in. Any other context would only be confusing or awkward: "You are a possible robot", "You didn't select enough traffic lights", "You did not pass the test" and even "reCaptcha failed" are not much helpful.
    – jazZRo
    Oct 1, 2021 at 8:11
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    A red box with exclamation mark icon would give enough context that something went wrong. What's left is advising users what to do next: Try again or contact support. It doesn't need much context. Also keep in mind that this message should be an exception that hopefully only a few users will see.
    – jazZRo
    Oct 1, 2021 at 8:12

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