A code, not a link
When you sign up, Famu needs to know the email address is really yours. It used to send a link to click, and a lot of people never made it back. Now it sends a 6-digit code that you type right where you signed up, without leaving the page.
At the very start of the email's subject line, so you can usually read it off your phone's notification without opening the email.
You are in the app straight away. Famu reminds you, and only after a full week does the account wait for the code.
Why a code, and not a link
The same email, two ways to use it.
On a phone, tapping a link in an email rarely opens the browser you signed up in. Gmail and most mail apps open it in their own little browser, where you are not signed in to Famu. The link did its job, but you are left looking at a sign-in page, or back in the app still being asked to confirm.
A code does not care which browser you are in. You read six digits, switch back to the Famu tab you never left, and type them.
With a link before
- Leave Famu and open your email app
- Find the email and open it
- Tap the link
- It opens inside the email app, not signed in
- Find your way back to Famu, and sign in again
With a code now
- Read the code on the notification
- Type it in the Famu screen you are already on
- Confirmed, and on to setting up your farm
Type it where you signed up
Try it: the code is on the notification. Get it right, get it wrong, run out of tries. It behaves the way the app does.
Check your email
We sent a 6-digit code to nakato@example.com. Enter it here.
It checks itself on the sixth digit; there is no button to press. Spaces and dashes are ignored, so "254 356" works too.
Often you do not even type it. On an iPhone, the code from Apple Mail appears just above the keyboard; tap it. On Android, Gmail's notification has a Copy code button: copy it, come back to Famu and tap Paste code from clipboard, or long-press the box and paste. Paste a whole sentence from the email and Famu picks the code out of it.
Busy? I'll do this later takes you straight on to setting up your farm. Nothing is lost; the code still works for its hour, and the yellow bar keeps an Enter code button for when you are ready.
Wait a minute, then ask again, or ask for a link
Drag the clock to see what the screen offers as time passes.
An email can take a minute to arrive, so for the first 60 seconds the screen only counts down and reminds you to look in spam. After that it offers two things: Resend code, which sends a fresh code and replaces the old one, and Can't find the code? Email me a link instead.
The link is the fallback for an email that keeps going missing. If you use it, open it on the same phone you signed up on. Asking for a link does not cancel your code, so if the code turns up after all, it still works.
A week, not a wall
Pick a moment after signing up to see what Famu shows.
You are never kept out of the app on the day you sign up. For the first day a yellow bar sits at the top of the page and can be waved away. After that, a reminder appears each time you sign in, saying how many days are left. After a full week the account waits for the code, and the locked screen is the same code box, so getting back in takes seconds.
Dismissing a reminder only hides it for that visit. It never changes what you are allowed to do; that is decided by Famu's server, not by your phone's clock.
The rules that keep it safe
An hour and five tries
A code works for one hour. Five wrong tries and it is used up, even if the sixth would have been right. Then you send yourself a new one.
One minute between emails
Famu's server refuses a new code or link within a minute of the last, whatever the screen shows, so nobody can flood an inbox by tapping a button.
Only you can use your code
A code is checked against the account signed in on that phone. Someone who sees it cannot use it to confirm a different account.
The code is not kept
Famu stores a scrambled fingerprint of the code, not the code itself, and throws even that away once it has been used.
Famu never reads your inbox
It cannot. It only reads your clipboard when you tap Paste, or when your browser has already said it may; it never asks out of the blue.
Some people are never asked
Signing in with Google means Google has already checked the address. Workers who sign in with a username have no address to confirm.
The code can only go where you sent it
A mistyped address cannot confirm itself
If the email address was typed wrong when you signed up, every code and every link goes to that wrong address. Resending will not help. Ask your farm administrator, or Famu support, to correct it.
And an email can be slow. If nothing has come after a few minutes, look in spam and in Gmail's Promotions or Updates tabs before asking for another.
You will be asked if
- You signed up with an email address and a password
- An admin added you to a farm with your email address (you get a link, since you were not in the app waiting for a code)
You will never be asked if
- You signed up with Continue with Google
- You are a worker who signs in with a username
- You have confirmed already, or your account dates from before Famu asked anyone to confirm