Closed Bug 1582002 Opened 5 years ago Closed 5 years ago

Make sync optional in the about:welcome signin flow

Categories

(Firefox :: Firefox Accounts, enhancement, P1)

Product:
Firefox
Component:
Firefox Accounts
Type:
enhancement

Tracking

()

Status:
VERIFIED FIXED
Milestone:
Firefox 71
Iteration:
71.3 - Sept 30 - Oct 13
Tracking Flags:
Tracking Status
firefox71 --- verified

People

(Reporter: rfkelly, Assigned: vladikoff)

References

Details

(Keywords: github-merged)

This is a spinoff from Bug 1577690, which is about landing changes to the Firefox sign-in flow that allow users to opt-out of syncing their data.

This new bug here, is specifically about changing about:welcome to use that new technology, so that users who sign in through our generic "join firefox" messaging have the option to do so without having to upload their (encrypted) browser data to our servers.

We infer that users will find value in this option, because we currently observe a significant number of users who disable all sync engines when signing in to Firefox, which we take a a signal that they wanted to account but not the syncing.

The required change is pretty small from a code perspective, basically removing service=sync from the signin URL that is opened by about:welcome when we ask the user to sign in. There's a WIP PR for it already here:

https://github.com/mozilla/activity-stream/pull/5314/

But we should discuss the most appropriate way to roll this out. :rfeeley suggested the possibility of an A/B test to confirm whether this changes user behavior during the onboarding flow, e.g. if we observe users opting out of sync instead of manually disabling all sync engines.

Depends on: 1577690
Blocks: 1589389

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/98f2e390e85d

Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 5 years ago
status-firefox71: --- → fixed
Priority: -- → P1
Resolution: --- → FIXED
Target Milestone: --- → Firefox 71
Assignee: nobody → vlad
Iteration: --- → 71.3 - Sept 30 - Oct 13

I have verified this issue with the steps provided here on Latest Firefox Nightly 71.0a1 (Build ID: 20191021095628) on Windows 10 x64, Mac 10.14.6 and Arch Linux 5.3.6 x64.

  • A new screen with the "Sync this device" and "Don't sync this device" options is displayed when signing into FxA from the about:welcome onboarding modal.
  • The "Syncing" option is set on "OFF" if the "Don't sync this device" option is selected
  • The "Syncing" option is set on "ON" if the "Sync this device" option is selected
Status: RESOLVED → VERIFIED
status-firefox71: fixed → verified

This new bug here, is specifically about changing about:welcome to use that new technology, so that users who sign in through our generic "join firefox" messaging have the option to do so without having to upload their (encrypted) browser data to our servers.

Jim, as discussed, this was within the context of the current vague copy. If you are moving towards more Sync specific copy (or just testing it), you don't have to make Sync optional.

Details between switching between the two:

The required change is pretty small from a code perspective, basically removing service=sync from the signin URL that is opened by about:welcome when we ask the user to sign in. There's a WIP PR for it already here:

Flags: needinfo?(jimthomas)

Following up in https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1606129 after the experiment is finished.

Flags: needinfo?(jimthomas)
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