Friday view: Touch the Sky
Andrew Walton, head of mobile at Sky Betting & Gaming, on how the firm became the sectorâs first to introduce TouchID capability on its iOS app
TouchID customers log in as normal and we detect whether your device is TouchID enabled and whether youâre also using it, as you can have the new iPhone and not use TouchID. We check for both of those and then fire up a prompt asking customers if they want to use the TouchID to log in using their fingerprint. Then the next time they attempt to log in itâll bring up the TouchID prompt. Customers that donât want to use it can still use the native log in, which is now our biggest sign-in feature.
We included the functionality in the app update but controlled its roll-out from our side. We initially launched at 10% and then checked all of the stats. They looked good so then ramped the launch up to 50% the day after before ramping up to 100%. It just means that we can control the roll out, make sure everythingâs working and collect the metrics we need.
We had 15,000 early adopters using the capability in its first day and the metrics all looked good. A while back we rolled out native log in which brings up a PIN entry screen as soon as the app launched. The whole point behind that was to make log in quicker and easier for customers. TouchID is obviously geared towards a smaller customer set, but Apple are pushing it quite hard so weâre expecting it to grow to a far bigger chunk of our customer base over the next few months.
We had a quick chat with our contact at Apple to explain what we were doing and as part of our submission we made sure the technology was working fine, but Apple were fine with us using the technology. I think it works well and itâs been well received so far.
Not only does it speed up log in, but it also makes it more secure and helps against people forgetting their log in details. As long as youâve got your finger with you, you can log in. Hopefully itâll become the way people authenticate on iOS devices and a lot of other big companies are beginning to use TouchID as well, and we really wanted to be first to market in our sector and weâre chuffed to do so. I think itâll become far more common in the near future.
We ran quite a lot of internal trials and had a lot of good feedback internally. Itâs early days in terms of the roll out, but the metrics look very good and the feedback weâve had has been impressive. Weâll continue to pool feedback from our App Store ratings page and keep an eye on it, but we expect itâll be overwhelmingly positive as thatâs been the early sign.