Do I Need OAuth?

The short answer is almost always “Yes”. Because of Google Contacts and because it results in more people sharing their address books with you.

Google Requires OAuth

If you want to integrate with Google Contacts, and of course you do; it’s the most popular place for people to keep their contacts online, you’ll need to register your application with them. This is still true when CloudSponge is doing the actual API calls on your behalf. In fact, Google has explicitly told us that they want all of our customers to have their own Google OAuth credentials.

If “Because you must” is not reason enough

We love what we do, but we don’t fool ourselves into thinking that everyone recognizes our brand. CloudSponge is a stranger to your users. It’s your product that they love and trust and want to engage with. So when you ask them for their address book, make sure that it is your familiar product name and logo that they see.

We typically see the completion rate for address book sharing double, when customers add their own OAuth credentials.

We don’t force you to create your own credentials for Yahoo or Microsoft connections, but it is still the best practice. A couple hours’ investment in your integration will yield a better experience for your users and more people sharing their address book with you.

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