More conversion, less fraud: the right way to do mobile onboarding
Mobile onboarding abandonment rates of 40% or higher are directly attributable to SMS OTP friction: users who reach the PIN code entry step abandon at that point and do not return. Replacing SMS OTP with Silent Network Authentication in the onboarding flow removes that friction entirely — the verification runs silently in just a few seconds, requires no user action, and is invisible to the user. Live deployments can show 20–30% conversion uplift on the affected journey.
Strong security for the onboarding process in your app has gone from a nice-to-have to a must-have, and we all know that passwords alone are not sufficient to keep out fraud and spam. The problem is that most standard 2FA (two-factor authentication) irritates users – retrieving codes via email or SMS is a leaky, unreliable process, involving context switches, for users who just want to get started with your app.
Mobile users are now the biggest audience for any online business, and they expect a streamlined experience. 42% of consumers report losing patience with the friction of onboarding requirements and dropping off at this vital part of the funnel, according to research by Liminal. How many users could you be losing at this stage, before they’ve invested any loyalty in your app or service? Might they feel differently if the first experience of dealing with your brand is slick and seamless, rather than disappointingly disjointed?
Why is current mobile onboarding such a pain?
Traditional mobile security is a series of hoops for users to jump through: giving an email or username, then creating a strong, unique password that they need to memorise or store, and then forcing them to exit the app in order to retrieve their OTP or use a separate authentication app. All this leads to a negative first impression of your brand as inconvenient, taking too long, and asking too much.
Worst of all, OTP codes aren’t even secure – malicious actors now have phishing kits designed to trick users into handing over an OTP. Any knowledge that can be shared can be stolen. Even on-device biometrics, like a thumbprint, aren’t significantly safer – they only function as a shortcut for the user’s stored password.
On the other hand, if your onboarding process is extremely lenient, you can have the opposite problem: fraudulent accounts, spambots generating false traffic, and users easily creating multiple accounts in order to enter competitions and take advantage of any limited deals you may offer (also known as offer fraud). While your traffic might look encouraging at first, it develops into a serious problem, and you can lose huge amounts of money on offers which were meant to benefit legitimate users only.
Until recently, this dilemma was impossible to balance – mobile apps had to make a trade-off between a delightful user experience and strong, trustworthy verification. But with a new technology that uses the impenetrable hardware security in the mobile phone itself, you can silently ensure that every user is legitimate and unique.
Strong security and user satisfaction: get the best of both worlds
SIM-based authentication is the new possession-factor technology that uses the mobile data security that is already built into your users’ phones – meaning all you need is their phone number for silent, secure verification.
With IDlayr integrated into your app, the user enters just their mobile number, and the app communicates instantly with the MNO (mobile network operator) to verify that the given number is the one linked to that SIM. It’s real-time, impenetrable, and based on the powerful security already used the world over by mobile networks – now available to businesses for the first time.
There’s no shareable information involved, meaning less effort for the user and no opportunity for bad actors to intercept a code or password. On the user end, they wait only a couple of seconds, their identity is verified, and they can continue. That means no context switching, no lengthy wait, and no inconvenience.
SIM security provides an invisible, effortless onboarding experience that feels like magic for the user – and powerful security to protect your business from spam, fraud, and duplicate accounts.
To learn more about how your app could benefit, book a free demo with IDlayr.
The primary cause of onboarding abandonment is friction at the authentication step. SMS OTP requires users to exit the app, wait for a message, read a code, return to the app, and enter the code correctly before it expires. Research by Liminal found 42% of consumers lose patience with onboarding friction and drop off before completing.
SMS OTP is the single largest friction point in most mobile onboarding flows. Delivery failures, expiry timers, context switching between app and SMS inbox, and entry errors collectively cause material abandonment. Most teams find OTP-step abandonment in the 15–40% range when measured directly.
The most direct improvement is replacing the SMS OTP step with Silent Network Authentication. SNA runs a silent check in the background, returning a result in just a few seconds with no user action required. There is no code to wait for, no context switch, and no entry step to abandon. Live deployments show 20–30% conversion uplift on the affected journey.
For mobile-first onboarding, Silent Network Authentication delivers the strongest combination of security and conversion performance. It is phishing-resistant, invisible to the user, and works on the first visit before a user has enrolled any other credential.
SNA replaces the SMS OTP step with a silent API call to the mobile network operator. The MNO confirms whether the phone number provided matches the one mapped to the SIM card in the user’s device. The entire check takes just a few seconds. The user sees nothing. No code to wait for, no step to fail, no abandonment point.
Live deployments show 20–30% uplift on the onboarding journey where SNA replaces SMS OTP. The exact figure depends on your current OTP-step abandonment rate and your user base’s mobile network coverage.
The assumption that stronger security requires worse UX is no longer true. SMS OTP is both insecure (phishable) and high-friction. Silent Network Authentication is more secure (possession-based, phishing-resistant) and zero-friction. Moving to SNA removes the trade-off — now you can have strong security with great UX.
No. Silent Network Authentication provides stronger security than SMS OTP because it is possession-based and phishing-resistant. SMS OTP can be intercepted via phishing relay, SIM Swap, or social engineering. SNA checks the SIM directly at the network layer — there is no credential to steal and no human step to exploit.
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