A more seamless Plaid Link experience for consumers

Over the past decade, digital finance apps and services have accessed consumer-permissioned data to provide personalized experiences that serve many consumer needs. As a result, consumers now have more and better choices in the apps they can use to manage their finances. 

Plaid is committed to supporting the evolution of digital finance apps and services with consumers in mind. By continuing to invest heavily in Plaid Link, we can ensure that no matter where consumers bank, they can fund their accounts, move money, and verify their identities and income, quickly and seamlessly. We're excited to share the newest Link updates for consumers and businesses.

Simple and secure experiences for consumers

With nearly 500,000 daily account connections via Link, Plaid often hears from businesses and consumers who want a secure and faster onboarding experience. According to the Fintech Effect report, 76% of consumers prefer apps they can sign up for and access instantly. Given that consumers typically use 3 to 4 apps to manage their finances, we saw an opportunity to continue to improve their experience for connecting accounts to multiple apps.

With this in mind, Link now includes a simple and secure returning user experience for supported institutions. Consumers can choose to be remembered by Plaid, making future connections to thousands of apps even faster and easier—while maintaining high-security standards. 

The consumer experience:

1. In Link, choose to enter a phone number to be remembered by Plaid. 

2. Proceed with selecting an institution and connecting your bank account to an app or service. 

3. The next time you come to another Plaid-powered app, you will go through security checks including device and phone number verification. 

4. If you pass, you can share your previously connected account from a supported institution with the new app. 

Since launching this returning user experience, 80% of consumers using Link have chosen to be remembered by Plaid with their phone number. This means millions of consumers are enjoying a smoother and faster account connection process, while businesses using Link are able to quickly onboard more consumers and provide helpful services.

At the forefront of this experience is Plaid’s commitment to consumers—ensuring they have visibility and control over their experience in Link while continuing to help protect consumers from potential fraud.

• Transparency and control: Consumers can choose if Plaid provides a streamlined account linking experience. By opting in with their phone number, they can get a smoother experience in the future or they can connect their accounts as usual. Through Plaid Portal, consumers can view, manage, and disconnect their account connections at any time. Consumers can also contact Plaid’s Consumer Support team to opt out of receiving Plaid’s returning user experience.

• Security: This streamlined experience uses industry best practices, such as risk-based authentication and real-time risk analysis to protect consumers. Behind the scenes, Plaid is running checks on a number of authentication factors, including phone number and device, to identify returning users before they can receive the streamlined experience. We’ll also be introducing passkeys to bring the next generation of online authentication to Link.

Simple, secure, and transparent—a radically improved account linking experience that keeps getting better to support consumers and businesses.

A faster way for consumers to get started with Link

Every second matters when onboarding consumers to an app or service. The easier it is for consumers to securely connect their accounts, the faster they can access valuable services—from money management tools to payments apps. 

We’re committed to creating even more seamless consumer experiences in Link. Recently, we added the ability for businesses to pre-load the Link experience. With a simple tap or click from an app, Link can open instantly for consumers to begin securely connecting their accounts. 

This free optimization is available now when businesses upgrade to the latest version of our mobile SDKs. After upgrading, review the API docs (iOS, Android, React Native) to configure Link to open instantly. 

We recommend planning for SDK upgrades on a regular basis to help stay up-to-date with security enhancements and new features that make the Link experience even better for consumers.

Hosted Link: Data connectivity without the complex integration

To help consumers access even more apps and services, Plaid is making it simple for developers and companies to build with Link. We’ve introduced a low-code solution that helps companies save time, free up resources, and get started with Plaid instantly. This is perfect for businesses with limited engineering capabilities or those looking to simplify their existing Link integration.

With Hosted Link, Plaid hosts the account linking experience and provides businesses with a secure link (URL) to embed into their web or mobile experiences. Once embedded, consumers can access the Link experience from a web browser or mobile app to securely connect their financial accounts. 

Developers and businesses can expect:

• A secure experience that is hosted on Plaid’s website.

• Improved conversion as Plaid will automatically redirect consumers from the OAuth flow back to a web or mobile experience to reduce user drop-off.

• The latest Link experience with new features and optimizations that can help more consumers connect their accounts.

Plus, Hosted Link is fully compatible with all Plaid products and does not require a SDK. Businesses using webview integrations are encouraged to migrate to Hosted Link for a better developer and consumer experience.

As the new era of open finance unfolds, Plaid will continue to partner across the ecosystem to enable fast, easy, and secure financial experiences for consumers. Stay tuned for more Link updates this year that can help deliver better consumer experiences and increase engagement for businesses.