Nexmo Verify SDK Touts Easy Phone Number-based Authentication

Nexmo has announced the availability of its Verify SDK for iOS, Android, and JavaScript, which makes it possible to securely register and authenticate users based on their mobile phone numbers, Nexmo says.

Nexmo Verify SDK, based on Nexmo Verify API, ties phone numbers to unique device identifiers and provides a number of important benefits, according to Nexmo, such as:

• improved security thanks to automatic logout and PIN challenges.
• ease of integration: a few lines of code are required to enable authentication, including 2-factor authentication.
• no backend required: Verify SDK provides user management support across devices and platforms, so developers will not need to use their own user databases.
• UI-ready: a customizable UI framework is provided to handle all verification workflows, including collecting a user’s phone number, displaying a PIN code challenge, etc.
• support for user re-verification through push notifications.
• global verification across carriers and countries, thanks to Nexmo Verify API.

On iOS, this is how developers would handle simple authentication:

NexmoClient.start(applicationId: "abcde", sharedSecretKey: "12345")
VerifyClient.getVerifiedUser(countryCode: "GB", phoneNumber: "07000000000",
onVerifyInProgress: {
    // Called when the verification process begins.
},
onUserVerified: {
    // Called when the user has been successfully verified.
},
onError: { (error: VerifyError) in
    // Called when an error occurs during verification. For example, the user enters the wrong pin.
    // See the VerifyError class for more details.
}
)

// Supply the PIN code entered by the user:
VerifyClient.checkPinCode("1234")

Verify SDK sends unverified users a PIN challenge. After PIN verification, users’ status is maintained for 30 days and user verification info is available instantly.

Beyond this basic workflow, Verify SDK also support more advanced use cases, such as searching user status, cancelling verification, logout, etc.

Nexmo offers a flexible pay-as-you-go pricing model, so developers pay per successful verification.