Why has the account creation changed to use email rather than phone?
I work at the family search library and help people start their accounts all the time. Today, 2/5/2025 the system changed, requiring the email address to set up an account. It no longer offers to send a code to their phone number via text to create the account. I was told that it can take up to 20 minutes to get an email. This would be devastating to our work here where we are trying to help people quickly get an account and get started on their tree. We also get guests who do not have email accounts. What do we tell them? Can something be done to correct this?
Answers
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Probably for tech reasons
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There are other options for sign in — Google, Apple, Facebook, and Church Account. In many ways (advanced security features being one), those are superior to setting up a FamilySearch account directly. So I would tell people to just use one of those identity providers and not worry about creating a FamilySearch account (a FamilySearch account will be created behind the scenes, but that's a detail they don't need to think about). Every smart phone user has a Google or Apple account; I doubt that you run into even one in a thousand guests who doesn't have one of those 4 accounts.
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So far FamilySearch still accepts Phone numbers instead of Email addresses as long as you live in the following countries; USA, Canada and Brazil. The following knowledge article will show how to connect using your phone. How to create a FamilySearch account.
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