Sign In with Email/Phone Number
Our React Native SDK offers the easiest way to integrate Cotter 's email/phone verification. You can simply call a function and it does most of the heavy lifting and authentication for you.
Verifying email and phone number in your mobile app using our React Native SDK consists of the following steps:
- 1.Call Cotter's Login function
- 2.Setup deep linking
- 3.Receive user's email or phone number, and whether or not it's verified

Cotter's React Native SDK on Android and iOS
- 3.Setup deep linking: Cotter's authentication will redirect back to your application using a URL scheme.
- 4.
Make sure you're using
react-native
version < 0.63yarn
npm
yarn add react-native-cotter react-native-device-info rn-secure-storage react-native-randombytes react-native-camera react-native-svg react-native-securerandom buffer react-native-inappbrowser-reborn react-native-sha256
npx pod-install ios
npm install --save react-native-cotter react-native-device-info rn-secure-storage react-native-randombytes react-native-camera react-native-svg react-native-securerandom buffer react-native-inappbrowser-reborn react-native-sha256
npx pod-install ios
- Verify the user's email or phone number
- Then create a new user in Cotter if successful
- If you passed-in the email/phone into the function: if your user already exists, it will return an error "User already exists"
- If you does not pass in the email/phone into the function: users can enter their email/phone in the pop-up browser, but it will NOT check if the user already exists. It will behave like the Log In method below.
Tip: Use the "Sign Up" method and pass in the user's email/phone to differentiate new and existing user. You can have an input text and collect the user's email/phone.
- To authenticate a user based on their email.
- If the user doesn't exist, this method will automatically create a new user.
Tip: Use the "Log In" method to login or register user on the same page
Using Email
Using Phone
import { Cotter } from 'react-native-cotter';
let cotter = new Cotter(API_KEY_ID); // your API_KEY_ID
await cotter.signUpWithEmailLink( // use Email & Magic Link
'myexample://auth_callback', // (setup later) URL Scheme for deep linking
(resp) => {console.log(resp)}, // Success Callback Function
(err) => {console.log(err)}, // Error Callback Function
{email: this.state.email}, // (Optional) , if you leave this blank, user can enter email in the in-app browser
);
- Magic Link: use
cotter.signUpWithEmailLink
- OTP: use
cotter.signUpWithEmailOTP
- Magic Link: use
cotter.signInWithEmailLink
- OTP: use
cotter.signInWithEmailOTP
If no email is specified, the user can enter the email in the in-app browser
import { Cotter } from 'react-native-cotter';
let cotter = new Cotter(API_KEY_ID); // your API_KEY_ID
await cotter.signUpWithPhoneLink( // use Phone & Magic Link
'myexample://auth_callback', // (setup later) URL Scheme for deep linking
(resp) => {console.log(resp)}, // Success Callback Function
(err) => {console.log(err)}, // Error Callback Function
{phone: this.state.phone, channel: "SMS" }, // (Optional), if you leave this blank, user can enter email in the in-app browser
);
- Magic Link: use
cotter.signUpWithPhoneLink
- OTP: use
cotter.signUpWithPhoneOTP
- Magic Link: use
cotter.signInWithPhoneLink
- OTP: use
cotter.signInWithPhoneOTP
- To use SMS:
{phone: this.state.phone, channel: "SMS"}
- To use WhatsApp:
{phone: this.state.phone, channel: "WHATSAPP"}
If no phone number is specified, the user can enter the phone number in the in-app browser and there will be buttons for WhatsApp and SMS available (based on your settings in the Dashboard > Branding).
To send code/link via SMS or WhatsApp, you'll need to add some balance to you project in the Dashboard.
Try this now! You should see an in-app browser looking like the image below popping up and ask you to authenticate.

Pick a unique URL scheme for redirecting the user back to your app after the verification in the in-app browser is successful. For this example, we'll use
myexample://auth_callback
.Make sure your URL scheme (the front part before
://
) doesn't have an underscore or other special characters. To test it out, enter your Redirect URL here: https://jsfiddle.net/omd02jn5/<activity
android:name=".MainActivity"
android:launchMode="singleTask"> <!-- Make launchMode to singleTask -->
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
</intent-filter>
<!-- Setup Deep Linking Here -->
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE" />
<!-- This is for myexample://auth_callback -->
<!-- 👇 Change this to your own URL scheme -->
<data android:scheme="myexample" android:host="auth_callback"/>
</intent-filter>
<!-- end -->
</activity>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<!-- ADD THE LINES FROM HERE -->
<key>CFBundleURLTypes</key>
<array>
<dict>
<key>CFBundleTypeRole</key>
<string>Editor</string>
<key>CFBundleURLName</key>
<string>myexample</string> <!-- 👈 Change this to your own URL Scheme -->
<key>CFBundleURLSchemes</key>
<array>
<string>myexample</string> <!-- 👈 Change this to your own URL Scheme -->
</array>
</dict>
</array>
<!-- TO HERE -->
<key>CFBundleDevelopmentRegion</key>
<string>en</string>
iOS 9.x or newer
// Add the header at the top of the file:
#import <React/RCTLinkingManager.h>
// Add this above `@end`:
- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application
openURL:(NSURL *)url
options:(NSDictionary<UIApplicationOpenURLOptionsKey,id> *)options
{
return [RCTLinkingManager application:application openURL:url options:options];
}
If you're targeting iOS 8.x or older, you can use the following code instead, add the following lines to YourApp/ios/YourApp/AppDelegate.m:
// Add the header at the top of the file:
#import <React/RCTLinkingManager.h>
// Add this above `@end`:
- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application openURL:(NSURL *)url
sourceApplication:(NSString *)sourceApplication annotation:(id)annotation
{
return [RCTLinkingManager application:application openURL:url
sourceApplication:sourceApplication annotation:annotation];
}
If your app is using Universal Links, you'll need to add the following code as well, add the following lines to YourApp/ios/YourApp/AppDelegate.m:
// Add this above `@end`:
- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application continueUserActivity:(nonnull NSUserActivity *)userActivity
restorationHandler:(nonnull void (^)(NSArray<id<UIUserActivityRestoring>> * _Nullable))restorationHandler
{
return [RCTLinkingManager application:application
continueUserActivity:userActivity
restorationHandler:restorationHandler];
}
React Navigation
React Navigation 5 or above
In your App.js
import { createStackNavigator } from 'react-navigation'
// Import Cotter's Loading Page
import { LoadingPage } from 'react-native-cotter';
const Main = createStackNavigator(
{
...
Register: { screen: Register },
// Redirect users Cotter's Handler page
CotterLoadingVerify: {
screen: LoadingPage, // Use Cotter's Loading Page
path: 'auth_callback' // Enable Deep linking redirection
},
}
)
If you have Nested Stack Navigator, add
path: ''
to every parent stack.// TARGET STACK
const RegisterStack = createStackNavigator(
{
Register: { screen: Register },
CotterLoadingVerify: {
screen: LoadingPage, // Use Cotter's Loading Page
path: 'auth_callback', // Enable Deep linking redirection
},
}
);
// PARENT 1
const RootStack = createStackNavigator(
{
// ADD path: '' here
RegisterStack: { screen: RegisterStack, path: '' },
...
}
);
// PARENT of PARENT 1
const RootSwitch = createSwitchNavigator(
{
Splash: { screen: Splash },
// ADD path: '' here
RootStack: { screen: RootStack, path: '' },
}
);
If you're using the newer version of React Navigation, copy paste the code below to your App.js or index.js.
In your App.js or index.js
import { NavigationContainer, useLinking } from '@react-navigation/native';
function App() {
const ref = React.useRef();
const {getInitialState} = useLinking(ref, {
prefixes: ['https://myexample.cotter.app', 'myexample://'],
config: {
CotterLoadingVerify: 'auth_callback', // ADD THIS TO REDIRECT TO COTTER'S HANDLER PAGE
},
});
const [isReady, setIsReady] = React.useState(false);
const [initialState, setInitialState] = React.useState();
React.useEffect(() => {
Promise.race([
getInitialState(),
new Promise(resolve =>
// Timeout in 150ms if `getInitialState` doesn't resolve
// Workaround for https://github.com/facebook/react-native/issues/25675
setTimeout(resolve, 150)
),
])
.catch(e => {
console.error(e);
})
.then(state => {
if (state !== undefined) {
setInitialState(state);
}
setIsReady(true);
});
}, [getInitialState]);
if (!isReady) {
return null;
}
return (
<NavigationContainer initialState={initialState} ref={ref}>
{/* content 👈 */}
</NavigationContainer>
);
}
In your Router
import {LoadingPage} from 'react-native-cotter';
function Router() {
return (
<Stack.Navigator>
...
// Add CotterLoadingVerify page
<Stack.Screen
name="CotterLoadingVerify"
component={LoadingPage}
options={{headerShown: false}}
/>
</Stack.Navigator>
);
}
Try it again! You should see the in-app browser redirecting back after you've successfully verified.
The
onError
function that you pass in will receive 2 parameters: errorMessage
(string) and errorResponse
(object). The errorResponse
is an http response from attempt to verify the user's email/phone in Cotter's server.The
onSuccess
function that you pass in will receive a response
object that looks like this:{
"identifier": {
"ID": "f4286df9-a923-429c-bc33-5089ffed5f68",
"created_at": "2020-07-21T22:53:21.211367Z",
"updated_at": "2020-07-21T22:53:21.211367Z",
"deleted_at": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z",
"identifier": "[email protected]", // User's email
"identifier_type": "EMAIL",
"device_type": "BROWSER",
"device_name": "Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 9; Android SDK built for x86 Build/PSR1.180720.075) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/69.0.3497.100 Mobile Safari/537.36",
"expiry": "2020-08-20T22:53:21.19705Z",
"timestamp": "2020-07-21T22:53:21.19705Z"
},
"oauth_token": {
"access_token": "eyJhbGciOiJFUz...", // Validate this access token
"id_token": "eyJhbGciOiJFUzI1...",
"refresh_token": "27944:lb31DY5pG229n...",
"expires_in": 3600,
"token_type": "Bearer",
"auth_method": "OTP"
},
"token": {...},
"user": {
"ID": "643a42c7-316a-4abe-b27e-f4d0f903bfea", // [Deprecated] Cotter uesr ID
"identifier": "[email protected]",
...
}
}
Please use the identifier (email/phone number) as your main way to identify users, user.ID is deprecated.
This JSON object contains 3 objects,
identifier
, oauth_token
and user
. - The identifier object contains information about the user's email or phone number, device type and name, and expiry.
- The
oauth_token
contains anaccess_token
that you can validate in your backend. - The
user
contains the User object in Cotter, which includes a "Cotter User ID". You should associate your user with this Cotter User ID for reference.
You should include this JSON Object into your call to your backend for Login or Registration. Your backend should then verify that the access token is valid.
Checkout how to verify the OAuth Tokens from Cotter here:
Since you'll be using your API Key from a front-end website or mobile app, your
API_KEY_ID
is exposed to anyone inspecting your code. Here are some ways to prevent abuse:Last modified 2yr ago