Passwordless with Universal Login

Before you start

• Configure a Passwordless connection. To learn how, read the following articles:

  • Passwordless Authentication with Email
  • Passwordless Authentication with Magic Links
  • Passwordless Authentication with SMS

The Universal Login Experience supports Passwordless connections, which allow users to provide a phone number or email address, and then receive a one-time password (OTP) to complete authentication.

Enable Passwordless for Universal Login

To configure Universal Login to support Passwordless connections, you’ll need to set the Authentication Profile to use a supported login flow, and update your application to specify the connection during authentication.

Enable Identifier First

In the Auth0 Dashboard, go to Authentication > Authentication Profile.

Select either Identifier First or Identifier First + Biometrics.

Update your application

Depending on the type of connections you have enabled for your application, you may need to update your application to specify a Passwordless connection during login:

Database connection	Passwordless connection	Need to specify?	User experience
Yes	SMS and/or Email	Yes	Specified Passwordless connection is presented during login.
No	SMS and Email	No	Passwordless connection that was created first is presented.
No	SMS or Email	No	Passwordless connection is presented (along with any enabled Social connections) during login.

To specify a Passwordless connection during login, you must pass the connection parameter and its value (either sms or email) to the Auth0 Authentication API Login endpoint:

https://mytenant.us.auth0.com/authorize?client_id={id}&``connection={sms|email}``&scope=…&response_type=code&response_mode=query&state=…&redirect_uri=http%3A%2F%2Flocalhost%3A3000&code_challenge=…

If you are using one of our SDKs, you can specify a Passwordless connection during initialization. For example:

auth0 = await createAuth0Client({
     domain: config.domain,
     client_id: config.clientId,
     connection: "email"
  });

auth0 = await createAuth0Client({
     domain: config.domain,
     client_id: config.clientId,
     connection: "sms"
  });

If you are using Passwordless with Universal Login and Single Sign-On, connection parameters sms and email do not utilize the existing Auth0 session, and the user will be prompted to log in.

Test the connection

When the user is prompted to enter their OTP, they’ll see one of the following screens:

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