Gmail joins Chrome’s new email verification experiment to make sign-ups faster

Google is testing a new way for Chrome to verify your email address without making you dig through your inbox for a code.

The feature is called the Email Verification Protocol, and it is now available as an origin trial in Chrome 150. Gmail is already part of the test, which means Google has at least one major email provider on board from day one.

Normally, signing up for a website means entering an email address, waiting for a six-digit code or a magic link, opening Gmail, then heading back to the page you were on. It works, but it is also one of those small things that gets frustrating fast.

Chrome wants to handle that part inside the browser instead. A supported website can ask Chrome to verify an email address, and Chrome can get confirmation from the email provider without the site having to send a message first.

Google says the website only gets proof that the person owns the address. It does not get access to the inbox, and Chrome is meant to ask the user before anything is verified.

It is worth stressing that this is not about to replace verification codes everywhere. This is an origin trial, so websites have to deliberately add support for it. Other email providers will need to join in too. For now, Gmail is the obvious starting point.

Still, there is a decent chance you will eventually see this on account sign-up, recovery, or login pages. If it works as intended, it could save people from the usual back-and-forth between a site and their email app.

Meanwhile, Google is also testing a new walkthrough that helps Windows users set Chrome as their default browser, another small change that makes the browser more involved in tasks that usually happen outside it.

For now, it is just a test, so most people will not notice anything yet. But Gmail users could be among the first to see Chrome handle email verification without the usual code sitting in their inbox.

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