One of the more surprising announcements from Apple at WWDC this afternoon was that it will be launching its own “Sign In with Apple” platform. In a post on its developer blog this evening, Apple notes that it will be required that apps implement “Sign in with Apple” if they also implement competing services.

“Sign in With Apple” isn’t live in the first beta of iOS 13, but the company says it will be available for developers to test this summer. It also notes that if an app supports third-party sign-in from a competitor like Google or Facebook, it must also support “Sign in with Apple.”

Sign In with Apple will be available for beta testing this summer. It will be required as an option for users in apps that support third-party sign-in when it is commercially available later this year.

This means that, theoretically, anytime you see an option to sign-in to a service with Facebook or Google, you should also see an option to sign in with your Apple account. Thus, developers will be required to update their apps to integrate “Sign in with Apple.”

Apple markets its sign in platform as a more secure and privacy-focused alternative to sign-in options from companies like Google, Facebook, and Twitter. Users will be able to select what information to share with companies when signing-in.

You can choose either share your real email with the service, or use the ‘hide my email’ option. If you choose the latter option, Apple will randomly generate an email that forwards to your actual email address, thus hiding your information from the company.

It’s interesting that Apple will be requiring developers support “Sign in with Apple,” and it’s possible that the requirement might not be well-received by some companies. Only time will tell how it plays out.

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