Posted to Open Discussion Forum on 8/27/2012

Hi everyone,

We have two new features to release today: third-party logins and mobile numbers.

Third-Party Logins

You can now login to iATN using a Facebook, Google or Yahoo account that you own. If you're one of those people that have a hard time remembering your iATN login credentials, but are always logged into Gmail, Facebook, or Yahoo, then this will make it easier for you to get into iATN. Connecting your third party account to your iATN account could also make it possible for you to get into iATN down the road if you've forgotten your login credentials, as well as lost access to your email account.

The first time you login with one of these third-party accounts, you will be prompted to authorize iATN to access your basic information. We use this information, such as your name and email address, to authenticate your account with us. You may also be prompted to login to your iATN account at that time. From then on, you will be able to login to iATN by clicking the button corresponding to whichever account you linked up (i.e. clicking on the Facebook, Google, or Yahoo button that appears below the login form.) If you have accounts with all three, you could theoretically link up all three and login with whichever you prefer.

Some of you may be wondering how this is better than our "auto login" feature. It's not better or worse, just different. When you activate auto-login (by clicking "Remember Me" during login), it saves a cookie in your current browser, so that whenever you return to iATN, you aren't prompted to login. But if you go to another location, or open another browser, you will still be prompted to login. With this new third-party account feature, you activate it one time, and you'll be able to login to iATN using that third party account no matter where you are.

Just as with our auto-login feature, we don't recommend using this feature in an untrusted environment or on a shared computer, unless you are comfortable securely signing out of all your accounts when finished.

If you'd like to try this feature, click the Log Out in the upper right corner, and you should see the new login form with the third party account options. (If you're using auto-login, you will have to completely sign out by clicking on the "Login As Different User" link provided on that page.)

Mobile Numbers

You can now add a mobile number to your iATN account, via the account settings page. (Scroll down to the Personal Information section.)

This is primarily an account safety feature at this point. If you add a mobile number to your iATN account (and follow the directions in the text message we send to verify it), you will have another way to recover your account login credentials in the future should you ever forget them or lose access to your email address on file.

In the future, we look forward to offering additional features for your mobile number and will announce those here.

And speaking of Facebook and Google, you can follow iATN on both services (as well as a few others) from this page.

Thanks!

Scott Brown
Administrator
iATN
Brea, California, USA