OtherSideSign in

Signing in

There's no password here.
That's deliberate.

Every other site asks you to invent a password, and most of us end up reusing one we already have. OtherSide skips that. You sign in with Google, or with a code we email you, and after that with your face or your fingerprint if you'd like.

It can look like a missing feature. It's the opposite — there is no password for anyone to guess, none for us to lose, and none for you to remember.

Sign inWhy no password?

Three ways in

Take the first one if you can

They all get you to the same place. What separates them is how much you have to do, and how much can go wrong.

Continue with Google

Recommended

One tap, nothing to type, nothing new to remember. Google guards your account far more heavily than a side project ever could — two-step verification, new-device checks, the lot — and all of that protects this account too. If you have a Google account, use it.

A code we email you

For anyone without a Google account, or who would rather not connect one. You type your address, we send a code, you type it back. Your inbox is the key — which is quietly true of every “forgot password” link you have ever clicked.

A passkey

Face ID, a fingerprint, or your password manager. You add one from your profile once you're already in, and from then on it is the quickest and the safest way back. It can't be phished, guessed, or reused elsewhere, because it isn't a secret you can type.

The honest reason

A password would make this less safe, not more

It isn't that passwords are hard to build — they're about an afternoon's work. It's that every one of them is a liability we'd be taking on for you.

  1. 1

    You would reuse one

    Almost everybody does. That means a break-in somewhere else — a forum you forgot about, a shop that went under — becomes a way into this account. Not because anything here failed, but because the password was never only ours.

  2. 2

    We would have to keep it

    A password is a secret you hand over and we store. Stored carefully it is still stored, and anything stored can eventually leak. The safest version of that secret is the one nobody ever collected.

  3. 3

    It can be talked out of you

    A convincing fake sign-in page is cheap to build and easy to fall for, especially on a phone. A password typed into one is gone. A passkey physically cannot be handed to the wrong site — it only answers to the real address — and Google's sign-in has its own defences against the same trick.

  4. 4

    It would not replace email anyway

    Every password site has a “forgot password” button, and that button emails you a link. So your email already opens the account. Adding a password puts a second lock on a door that opens either way: more to remember, nothing more stopped.

OtherSide never holds money, so there is no balance for anyone to drain. Your account does hold who you wager with and what you agreed to, though, and that is worth keeping properly shut.

The usual worry

What “Continue with Google” actually does

It is not us getting into your Google account. It is Google vouching for you, the same way it does everywhere else you've used that button.

What we get

  • Your email address
  • Your name, as Google has it
  • Your profile picture

That is the whole list — the same things you would have typed into a sign-up form yourself.

What we never get

  • Your Google password — you type that at Google, never here
  • Your Gmail, Drive, photos, contacts or calendar
  • Any way to send, post or change anything

And you can cut the connection whenever you like, from your Google account settings.

The part that matters: your password never passes through OtherSide, so it can never leak from OtherSide. That one fact is the biggest reason to prefer this button.

No Google account?

Then use the code, and nothing else changes

Any address works — a work one, an old one, anything you can open. Nobody needs a Google account to be here, and members who sign in by email get everything members who don't do.

You type your address, and we email you a button and a code. The button is quicker; the code is more reliable, and it is worth knowing why.

When you tap a link inside a mail app on a phone, it usually opens in a small browser built into that app rather than in Safari or Chrome. You get signed in in there. Next time you open OtherSide properly it looks like you were signed out, so you ask for another email, and around it goes.

Typing the code back into the window you started from sidesteps all of that. Same email, same hour, it just lands in the right place.

Either one works once and expires after an hour. If one goes stale, ask for another.

Staying in

You shouldn't have to do this often

Signing in is meant to be a rare event. Once you're in, OtherSide remembers you on that device for three months, and every visit pushes that back out again.

To make coming back instant, add a passkey from your profile once you're in. After that it is Face ID or a fingerprint and you're through — no email, no waiting, nothing typed.

Adding one takes nothing away. Google and the emailed code keep working exactly as before, so losing or replacing a phone can never lock you out of your own account.

Questions

The ones people actually ask

I'd still rather have a password. Can I?
No, and it isn't stubbornness. A password we stored would be the weakest part of your account and the only part of it we could lose on your behalf. Everything a password would do for you, Google or a passkey does better, and the emailed code covers anyone who wants neither.
Does signing in with Google mean you can read my email?
No. Google hands over your address, your name and your picture, and nothing else — no access to Gmail, Drive, contacts or calendar, and no way to send or post anything. You can revoke the connection from your Google account at any time, and it only ever affects signing in here.
What if I don't want to use Google at all?
Use the emailed code, with any address you like. Nothing in OtherSide needs a Google account, and members who sign in by email are not second-class — same passkeys, same three months of staying signed in, same everything.
What happens if I lose my phone?
Nothing you can't undo. Sign in with Google or an emailed code from any other device, remove the old passkey from your profile, and add one on the new phone. A passkey is never your only way in, which is exactly why losing one isn't a crisis.
Can someone get in with just my email address?
Only if they can read your email. The code goes to your inbox and dies after an hour, so knowing your address isn't enough — they would have to be inside it. If that worries you, use Google or add a passkey; both need more than an address.
Is a passkey just a password my phone remembers?
No, and the difference is the whole point. A saved password is still a password: it can be copied, typed into the wrong site, or leaked from ours. A passkey never leaves your device or your password manager. It proves who you are without handing over anything reusable, and it refuses to work on any site but the real one.
Why do I need an invite as well?
Because proving who you are and being allowed in are different questions. This page is about the first one. The second takes a link from someone already here — OtherSide only ever pairs you with friends you've added, so the door stays narrow on purpose.

OtherSide

Nothing to invent, nothing to forget, nothing for us to lose.

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