Posted by Niharika Arora – Senior Developer Relations Engineer at Google, Thomás Oliveira Horta – Android Engineer at Uber

How Uber is reducing manual logins by 4 million per year with the Restore Credentials API

Uber is the world’s largest ridesharing company, getting millions of people from here to there while also supporting food delivery, healthcare transportation, and freight logistics. Simplicity of access is crucial to its success; when users switch to a new device, they expect a seamless transition without needing to log back into the Uber app or go through SMS-based one-time password authentication. This frequent device turnover presents a challenge, as well as an opportunity for strong user retention. 

To maintain user continuity, Uber’s engineers turned to the Restore Credentials feature, an essential tool for a time when 40% of people in the United States replace their smartphone every year. Following an assessment of user demand and code prototyping, they introduced Restore Credentials support in the Uber rider app. To validate that restoring credentials helps remove friction for re-logins, the Uber team ran a successful A/B experiment for a five-week period. The integration led to a reduction in manual logins that, when projected across Uber’s massive user base, is estimated to eliminate 4 million manual logins annually.

Eliminating login friction with Restore Credentials

The Restore Credentials API eliminates the multi-step manual sign in process on new devices.

There were past attempts at account restoration on new devices using solutions like regular data backup and BlockStore, though both solutions required sharing authentication tokens directly, from source device to destination device. Since token information is highly sensitive, these solutions are only used to some extent, to pre-fill login fields on the destination device and reduce some friction during the sign-in flows. Passkeys are also used to provide a secure and fast login method, but their user-initiated nature limits their impact on seamless device transitions.

“Some users don’t use the Uber app on a daily basis, but they expect it will just work when they need it,” said Thomás Oliveira Horta, an Android engineer at Uber. “Finding out you’re logged out just as you open the app to request a ride on your new Android phone can be an unpleasant, off-putting experience.”

With Restore Credentials, the engineers were able to bridge this gap. The API generates a unique token on the old device, which is seamlessly and silently moved to the new device when the user restores their app data during the standard onboarding process. This process leverages Android OS’s native backup and restore mechanism, ensuring the safe transfer of the restore key along with the app’s data. The streamlined approach guarantees a simple and safe account transfer, meeting Uber’s security requirements without any additional user input or development overhead.

“With the adoption of Restore Credentials on Uber’s rider app, we started seeing consistent usage,” Thomás said. “An average of 10,000 unique daily users have signed in with Restore Credentials in the current rollout stage, and they’ve enjoyed a seamless experience when opening the app for the first time on a new device. We expect that number to double once we expand the rollout to our whole userbase.”

Implementation Considerations

“Integration was pretty easy with minor adjustments on the Android side by following the sample code and documentation,” Thomás said. “Our app already used Credential Manager for passkeys, and the backend required just a couple of small tweaks. Therefore, we simply needed to update the Credential Manager dependency to its latest version to get access to the new Restore Credentials API. We created a restore key via the same passkey creation flow and when our app is launched on a new device, the app proactively checks for this key by attempting a silent passkey retrieval. If the restore key is found, it is immediately utilized to automatically sign the user in, bypassing any manual login.”

Throughout the development process, Uber’s engineers navigated a few challenges during implementation—from choosing the right entry point to managing the credential lifecycle on the backend.

Choosing the Restore Credentials entry point

The engineers carefully weighed the tradeoffs between a perfectly seamless user experience and implementation simplicity when selecting which Restore Credentials entry point to use for recovery. Ultimately, they prioritized a solution that offered an ideal balance.

“This can take place during App Launch or in the background during device restoration and setup, using BackupAgent,” Thomás said. “The background login entry point is more seamless for the user, but it presented challenges with background operations and required usage of the BackupAgent API, which would have led to increased complexity in a codebase as large as Uber’s.” They decided to implement the feature during the first app launch, which was significantly faster than the manual login.

Addressing server-side challenges

A few server-side challenges arose during integration with the backend WebAuthn APIs, as their design assumed user verification would always be required, and that all credentials would be listed in a user’s account settings; neither of these assumptions worked for the non-user-managed Restore Credential keys.

The Uber team resolved this by making minor changes to the WebAuthn services, creating new credential types to distinguish passkeys from Restore Credentials and process them appropriately.

Managing the Restore Credentials lifecycle

Uber’s engineers faced several challenges in managing the credential keys on the backend, with specialized support from backend engineer Ryan O’Laughlin:

• Preventing orphaned keys: A significant challenge was defining a strategy for deleting registered Public Keys to prevent them from becoming “orphaned.” For example, uninstalling the app deletes the local credential, but because this action doesn’t signal the backend, it leaves an unused key on the server.

• Balancing key lifespan: Keys needed a “time to live” that was long enough to handle edge cases. For example, if a user goes through a backup and restore, then manually logs out from the old device, the key is deleted from that old device. However, the key must remain valid on the server so the new device can still use it.

• Supporting multiple devices: Since a user might have multiple devices (and could initiate a backup and restore from any of them), the backend needed to support multiple Restore Credentials per user (one for each device).

Uber’s engineers addressed these challenges by establishing rules for server-side key deletion based on new credential registration and credential usage.

The feature went from design to delivery in a rapid two-month development and testing process. Afterward, a five-week A/B experiment (time to validate the feature with users) went smoothly and yielded undeniable results. 

Preventing user drop-off with Restore Credentials

By eliminating manual logins on new devices, Uber retained users who might have otherwise abandoned the sign-in flow on a new device. This boost in customer ease was reflected in a wide array of improvements, and though they may seem slight at a glance, the impact is massive at the scale of Uber’s user base: 

• 3.4% decrease in manual logins (SMS OTP, passwords, social login).

• 1.2% reduction in expenses for logins requiring SMS OTP.

• 0.575% increase in Uber’s access rate (% of devices that successfully reached the app home screen).

• 0.614% rise in devices with completed trips.

Today, Restore Credentials is well on its way to becoming a standard part of Uber’s rider app, with over 95% of users in the trial group registered.

[UI flow]

During new device setup, users can restore app data and credentials from a backup. After selecting Uber for restoration and the background process finishes, the app will automatically sign the user in on the new device’s first launch.

The invisible yet massive impact of Restore Credentials

In the coming months, Uber plans to expand the integration of Restore Credentials. Projecting from the trial’s results, they estimate the change will eliminate 4 million manual logins annually. By simplifying app access and removing a key pain point, they are actively building a more satisfied and loyal customer base, one ride at a time.

“Integrating Google’s RestoreCredentials allowed us to deliver the seamless ‘it just works’ experience our users expect on a new device,” said Matt Mueller, Lead Project Manager for Core Identity at Uber. “This directly translated to a measurable increase in revenue, proving that reducing login friction is key to user engagement and retention.”

Ready to enhance your app’s login experience?

Learn how to facilitate a seamless login experience when switching devices with Restore Credentials and read more in the blog post. In the latest canary of the Android Studio Otter you can validate your integration, as new features help mock the backup and restoring mechanisms. 

If you are new to Credential Manager, you can refer to our official documentation,

codelab and samples for help with integration.

Posted by Niharika Arora (X and LinkedIn) – Senior Developer Relations Engineer and Vinisha Athwani – Technical Writer (LinkedIn)

In a world where digital security is becoming increasingly critical, passwords have become a notorious weak link – they’re cumbersome, often insecure, and a source of frustration for users and developers. But there’s good news: passkeys are gaining popularity as the most user-friendly, phishing-resistant, and secure authentication mechanism available. For Android developers, the Credential Manager API helps you guide your users towards using passkeys while ensuring continued support for traditional sign-in mechanisms, such as passwords.

In this blog, we discuss some of the best practices you should follow while encouraging users to transition to passkeys.

Understand authentication with passkeys

Before diving into the recommendations for encouraging the transition to passkeys, here’s an overview of the fundamentals of authentication with passkeys:

• Passkeys: These are cryptographic credentials that replace passwords. Passkeys are associated with device unlocking mechanisms, and are the recommended method of authentication for apps and sites.
• Credential Manager: A Jetpack API that provides a unified API interface for interacting with different types of authentication, including passkeys, passwords, and federated sign-in mechanisms like Sign in with Google.

How do passkeys help your users?

There are several tangible benefits that users experience in apps that allow them to use passkeys to sign in. The highlights of using passkey for users are as follows:

• Improved sign-in experience: Users get the same UI whether they use passwords, passkeys or federated sign-in mechanisms like Sign in with Google.
• Reduced sign-in time: Instead of typing out passwords, users use their phone unlock mechanisms, such as biometrics, resulting in a smooth sign-in experience.
• Improved security: Passkeys use public-key cryptography so that data breaches of service providers don’t result in a compromise of passkey-protected accounts, and are based on industry standard APIs and protocols to ensure they are not subject to phishing attacks. (Read more about syncing and security here).
• Unified experience across devices: With the ability to sync passkeys across devices, users benefit from simplified authentication regardless of the device they’re using.
• No friction due to forgotten passwords!

Underscoring the improved experience with passkeys, we heard from several prominent apps. X observed that login rates improved 2x after adding passkeys to their authentication flows. KAYAK, a travel search engine, observed that the average time it takes their users to sign up and sign in reduced by 50% after they incorporated passkeys into their authentication flows. Zoho, a comprehensive cloud-based software suite focused on security and seamless experiences, achieved 6x faster logins by adopting passkeys in their OneAuth Android app.

What’s in it for you?

When you migrate your app to use passkeys, you’ll be leveraging the Credential Manager API which is the recommended standard for identity and authentication on Android.

Apart from passkeys, the Credential Manager API supports traditional sign-in mechanisms, simplifying the development and maintenance of your authentication flows!

For all of these sign-in mechanisms, Credential Manager offers an integrated bottom-sheet UI, saving you development efforts while offering users a consistent experience.

When should you prompt users to use passkeys?

Now that we’ve established the benefits of passkeys, let’s discuss how you should encourage your users to migrate to passkeys.

The following are a list of UX flows in which you can promote passkeys:

• User account registration: Introduce passkey creation prompts at key moments, such as when your users create their accounts:

Contextual Prompts during account creation
• Sign in: We recommend you encourage users to prompt passkeys in the moment after a user signs in with an OTP, password, or other-sign in mechanisms.

Prompt passkey creation during sign-in
• Account recovery: The critical user journey (CUJ) for account recovery is one that historically presents friction to users. Prompting users to adopt passkeys during account recovery is a recommended path. Users who adopt passkeys experience a familiar account recovery experience as during sign-in.

Account Recovery flow
• Password resets: This is the perfect moment to prompt users to create a passkey; after the frustration of a password reset, users are typically more receptive to the convenience and security passkeys offer.

Create a passkey for faster sign-in next time

How should you encourage the transition to passkeys?

Encouraging users to transition from passwords to passkeys requires a clear strategy. A few recommended best practices are as follows:

• Clear value proposition: Use simple, user-centric prompts to explain the benefits of passkeys. Use messaging that highlights the benefits for users. Emphasize the following benefits:
• Improved security benefits, such as safety from phishing.
• No need to type out a password.
• Ability to use the same passkey across devices/platforms.
• A consistent authentication experience.

Passkey prompt with clear value proposition
• Provide a seamless user experience:
• Use the unified UI provided by Credential Manager to show all available sign-in options, allowing the user to choose their preferred method without having to remember which one they used last.
• Use the official passkey icon to build user familiarity and create a consistent experience.
• Make sure that users can fall back to their traditional sign-in methods or a recovery method, such as a username and password, if a passkey is not available or if they are using a different device.

• Provide users with clarity about credentials within your app’s Settings UI: Make sure your users understand their authentications options by displaying helpful information about each passkey within your app’s settings. To learn more about adding credentials metadata, see the Credential Manager documentation.

Passkey Metadata on App’s Settings screen

• Educate users: Supplement the messaging to adopt passkeys with in-app educational resources or links that explain passkeys in detail.
• Progressive rollout: Consider a phased rollout to introduce passkeys to a subset of your user base to gather feedback and refine the user experience before a broader launch.

Developer Case Studies

Real-world developer experiences often highlight how small design choices—like when and where to surface a passkey prompt—can significantly influence adoption and user trust. To see this in action, let’s explore how top apps have strategically surfaced passkey prompts at key moments in their apps to drive stronger adoption :

Uber

To accelerate passkeys adoption, Uber is proactively promoting passkeys in various user journeys, alongside marketing strategies.

Uber has shared : “90+% of passkey enrollments come from promoting passkey creation at key moments inside the app as compared to onboarding and authentication CUJs“, underscoring the effectiveness of their proactive strategy.

Key learnings and strategies from their implementation:

• Offer passkeys without disrupting the core user experience: Uber added a new account checkup experience in their account settings to highlight passkey benefits, resulting in high passkey adoption rates.

User Account checkup flow

• Proactively bring passkeys to users: They learned not to wait for users to discover passkeys organically because relying on organic adoption would have been slower despite observed benefits like faster sign-ins and increased login success rates for passkey users.
• Use additional mediums to promote passkeys: Uber is also experimenting to promote passkeys through email campaigns or banners on a user’s account screen to highlight the new sign-in method, making their next sign-in easier and more secure.
• Respect your user’s choice: Recognizing that not all users are ready for passkeys, Uber implemented backoff logic in critical flows as sign in, signup screens and, in some contexts, offers passkeys alongside other familiar authentication methods.

Here’s what Uber has to say:

At Uber, we’ve seen users who adopt passkeys enjoy a faster, more seamless, and more secure login experience. To help more users benefit from passkeys, we’ve added nudges to create a passkey at key moments in the user experience: account settings, signup, and login. These proactive outreaches have significantly accelerated our passkey adoption. 

Ryan O’Laughlin

Senior Software Engineer, Uber

Economic Times

Economic Times, part of the Times Internet ecosystem, used a seamless user experience as the primary motivation for users to transition to passkeys.

After introducing targeted nudges, Economic Times observed ~10% improvements in passkey creation completion rate within the initial rollout period.

Key learnings and strategies from their implementation:

• Strategic passkey generation prompts: Initially, Economic Times was aggressively prompting passkey creation in multiple user flows, but it was observed that this approach disrupted business-critical journeys such as subscription purchases or unlocking premium features and was leading to abandoned carts.
• Refined approach: Economic Times made a deliberate decision to remove passkey generation prompts from sensitive flows (such as the subscription checkout flow) to prioritize immediate action completion.
• Targeted prompts: They strategically maintained passkey generation in areas where user intent to sign-in or manage authentication is high, such as initial sign-up flows, explicit sign in pages, or account management sections.
• Positive outcome: This refined deployment resulted in improved passkey generation numbers, indicating strong user adoption, without compromising user experience in critical business flows.

Passkeys Management Screen

Conclusion

Integrating passkeys with Android’s Credential Manager isn’t just about adopting new technology; it’s about building a fundamentally more secure, convenient, and delightful experience for your users. By focusing on intelligent passkey introduction, you’re not just securing accounts–you’re building trust and future-proofing your application’s authentication strategy.

To provide your users the best, optimized and seamless experience, follow the UX guidelines while implementing passkeys authentication with Credential Manager. Check out the docs today!

• Sample with UX best practices
• Sign in your user with Credential Manager
• API Reference – androidx.credentials
• User authentication with passkeys
• Google Safety Center – Passkey
• Google Security Blog: Security of Passkeys in the Google Password Manager