Google Chrome Plans a Simpler Way to Verify Your Email
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Google’s Chrome team is working on a new proposal called the “Email Verification Protocol (EVP)” that could replace today’s clunky magic link process with a faster, in-browser check. It follows other recent experiments, like a feature designed to outsmart search hijackers before users even notice.
Verifying an email today usually means clicking a link sent to your inbox or copying and pasting a code, a process that interrupts the signup flow and forces users to switch apps just to prove they own the address associated with their email.
This hassle often makes users give up on the process. Social logins with providers like Google or Apple solve part of the problem, but they require apps to integrate each provider, and users must agree to share additional profile details in the process.
Chrome’s new Email Verification Protocol
With EVP, the verification happens directly in the browser. When you enter your email address into a form, Chrome can securely confirm with your email provider that you own the account. The site then gets a cryptographic token as proof without ever sending you an email.
That means users wouldn’t have to wait for links or codes, switch between apps, or risk dropping off midway through the signup process.
There’s also a privacy angle. Clicking on magic links today gives email providers visibility into which apps you’re signing up for and when. With EVP, the browser mediates the request, so your email provider doesn’t directly learn which service is verifying your address.
If this system becomes popular, it could make signups quicker, help apps keep more users, and give everyone an easier experience online. Gmail would probably be the first to support it, but it would take other email providers and browsers to join in before it works everywhere.
You can read Google’s proposal on the Email Verification Protocol and its explainer here
and here.
That’s not all. Chrome can now revoke clipboard permissions for inactive sites and is gaining touch drag-and-drop support on Windows 11.
