Integrating Google Sign-In with Capacitor Plugin for Your Ionic App

What is Capacitor?

Capacitor is a cross-platform runtime developed by the Ionic team, enabling developers to build web-based apps that run natively across iOS, Android, and the web. One of Capacitor's key strengths is its plugin system, allowing developers to access native device features like authentication, camera, and more. By using a Capacitor plugin for Google Sign-In, you can authenticate users directly from their Google accounts with ease.

Why Google Sign-In?

Google Sign-In is a widely recognized authentication system that allows users to log in to apps without creating new credentials. It simplifies the process, ensuring a faster and more secure login experience for users while giving developers access to trusted Google OAuth services.

1. Install Required Capacitor Plugin

To get started, you'll need the official Google Sign-In plugin for Capacitor. You can install it via npm in your Ionic project:

npm install @codetrix-studio/capacitor-google-auth

After installing the plugin, sync it with Capacitor:

npx cap sync

3. Configure Your Ionic App for Google Sign-In

In your capacitor.config.ts file, add the Google client ID obtained from the Google API Console:

const config = {
 ...
 plugins: {
  GoogleAuth: {
   scopes: ["profile", "email"],
   serverClientId: "YOUR_GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID.apps.googleusercontent.com",
   forceCodeForRefreshToken: true
  }
 }
}

4. Implement the Login Functionality

import { GoogleAuth } from '@codetrix-studio/capacitor-google-auth';

async loginWithGoogle() {
 try {
  const user = await GoogleAuth.signIn();
  console.log('User Info: ', user);
  // Handle user data and token here
 } catch (error) {
  console.error('Google Sign-In Error:', error);
 }
}

5. Handle Logout

async logoutFromGoogle() {
 await GoogleAuth.signOut();
 console.log('User signed out');
}

6. Testing on Android and iOS

ionic build android
ionic build ios

Make sure to test the login flow, ensuring that the app properly handles the Google Sign-In and retrieves user data.