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What is the most user friendly way to verify a user’s identity for a dating app?
We currently use Facebook login but we receive a lot of complaints that we don’t have another login method. So I’m trying to figure out what the best way is outside of Facebook to verify a user is who they say they are.
Log in (via social or generic sign up) and verification can be two separate thing. Some dating website/app offer generic sign up (username and password) to reduce the barrier of entry to on board user. They need to grow their database rapidly in order to attract more users. Slapping a verification process on top of the sign up would impede the growth.
By far the most effective form of verification is to do background check on their members by providing them with an option to upload their social security number, personal id or anything that describes the user identity. This check is usually required on dating site to prove their authenticity and also increase their likelihood of getting a match. Members who are serious about online dating appreciate such feature as it weeds out non serious dater and probably sex-offender.
Modern dating apps like Tinder, Happn require their members to have a minimum number of "friends" in their facebook account to qualify them. Although this adds another layer of security to prevent users from creating fake/dummy social account but its not fool proof. Users can still find ways to circumvent these checks if they want to, such as buying "fake friends" to populate their social account.
Implementing social log in for dating site entails more then just providing convenience to the users. If done haphazardly, it can be seen as a form of false security or assurance.
Ask the user what they didn't like about the fb log in, is it because it creates a barrier of entry? After all there is still a stigma surrounding online dating and user are hesitant to use their social account to sign up. As what Monomeeth suggested, you could include a generic sign up on top of the fb log in to give users more options.
It might depend on the platform.
Assuming you're talking about a smartphone app, I'd leverage off the built in security features of the platform where possible and use a password as your backup.
For example
On iPhone 5s, and all of the iPhone 6 variants I'd leverage off the built-in Touch ID technology and use a 'fingerprint login'. This is actually a lot faster, more secure, and provides an overall better user experience. That's why many password and banking apps now provide the option for iOS users, with a password as a backup.
I'd also leverage off the similar technology found in the higher end Android market. This may be a little more challenging because of the fragmented nature of the Android hardware industry, but is certainly worth the effort.
And there's no reason why you couldn't offer it for your iOS users first before rolling it out on the Android versions of the app. In fact that's what many of the banks have done, with their Android versions still using a password login while the iOS versions offer a choice of either.
If you're talking purely about a website app, then I'd offer the option of both Facebook and Google logins, as well as a registered user login.
Many Facebook and Google users are more than happy to login via those methods, but you'd want to offer the third "register with us" option as many people are also hesitant to use Facebook and/or Google to log in on third party websites/services. In that case you're really limited to using a username and passsword, although you could use cookies to remember people for up to 24hrs (or some other time period, but not one that's too short such as 15mins) before requiring them to log in again.
