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Anonymous Authentication

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  • Overview
  • Account Linking
  • Configuration
  • Examples
  • Summary

The Anonymous authentication provider allows users to log in to your application without providing credentials. Anonymous user objects have a unique ID value but no other metadata fields or configuration options.

Warning

An Anonymous user object is not intended to persist data. Once a user logs out, the user cannot retrieve any previous user data.

Potential use cases for anonymous authentication include:

  • Authenticating the readers of a blog or news service.

  • Allowing end users to try the features of an application before registering for an account.

  • Simplifying the creation of users while developing and testing the client application.

When someone authenticates anonymously, the provider generates an anonymous user object. If the app does not explicitly log this anonymous user out, the same anonymous user is reused. The anonymous user persists until either of these things occur:

  • Explicit logout.

  • User deletion. Atlas App Services deletes anonymous user objects that have been inactive for 90 days.

To persist data associated with an Anonymous user, you can associate that existing Anonymous identity with a user account created by a different authentication provider.

Important

Anonymous user expiration

App Services may delete an Anonymous user object that is 90 days old (or older). When an account is deleted, it is not recoverable and any associated user data is lost. Documents created or modified by the user remain unaffected.

Note

The anonymous authentication provider does not have any provider-specific configuration options.

For code examples that demonstrate how to register and log in using anonymous authentication, see the documentation for the Realm SDKs:

  • Anonymous authentication allows users to interact with your application creating an identity.

  • To persist data from an anonymous session after a user creates an identity with a different authentication provider, you can link the two identities.

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