Privy enables developers to create Guest accounts for users, so that users can immediately use your app without going through a login flow.Guest accounts are available in @privy-io/[email protected] and above.
Privy guest accounts have powerful features:
  • They are locally persisted, so guest users can leave and return to the same account on the same device.
  • They have fully functioning embedded wallets that can transact and mint on-chain.
  • They are upgradable to fully logged-in accounts by simply calling login().
  • They have stable user IDs that do not change once a user is fully logged in.
  • They can be logged out and deleted as needed.

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Integration tips

  • Guest account creation: If a user is not logged in at all (via guest or normal user account), we recommend showing guest account creation and normal user login side-by-side.
    • e.g. a “Continue as Guest” button next to a “Login or Create Account” button. This is so users do not create guest accounts unintentionally when they mean to log in with an existing account.
  • Guest account upgrade: If a user is logged in as a guest, we recommend showing two options: upgrade or delete.
    • Upgrade guest account: When a guest upgrades to a full user, they must enter a new login credential. If they try to upgrade with a credential (e.g. email address) that already is associated with an existing account, they will see a “Could not link existing account” error message.
    • Delete guest account: If a guest prefers to use an existing account instead, they must delete their guest account first. We recommend surfacing a “delete” option explicitly so guests can opt-into abandoning their guest account in favor of an existing account.
  • You can make use of login and error callbacks to customize your desired behavior when a user upgrades out of guest-mode.

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Please note

Guest accounts are valid for 30 days. If the guest does not upgrade to a full user account within 30 days, the guest session will expire.
  • User data and embedded wallets from guest sessions cannot be merged into an existing user account — guest accounts can only be upgraded into a new user account. If a guest user wants to log in with an existing account, you must delete the guest user session first.
  • Note that Telegram is not available as an upgrade login method for guest accounts.

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Configure guest accounts

Enable guest accounts in the Privy Dashboard before implementing this feature.

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Usage

Use the createGuestAccount function from the useGuestAccounts hook in the React SDK to integrate guest accounts. The createGuestAccount function returns an authenticated User object.
import {useGuestAccounts} from '@privy-io/react-auth';
// createGuestAccount: () => Promise<User>
const {createGuestAccount} = useGuestAccounts();
createGuestAccount is an asynchronous call that will create and authenticate users as guests. If the user is already a guest, this call is idempotent. If the user is already logged in as a non-guest user, this will throw an error indicating as such.

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Check if a user is a guest

To check if a User is a guest account, use the isGuest property on the User object returned by the usePrivy hook.
const {user} = usePrivy();

// isGuest: boolean
user.isGuest;

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Access a guest user ID

To access the guest’s user data including their stable user ID and wallet address, access the user object from the usePrivy hook.
const {user} = usePrivy();

// Get the user's stable User ID and their wallet address.
user.id;
user.wallet.address;

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Access a guest user’s embedded wallet

To transact with the guest user’s embedded wallet, use the appropriate wallet from the connected wallets array. All embedded wallet functionality that is available for logged-in users is also available to guest users.
const {wallets} = useWallets();
const embeddedWallet = getEmbeddedConnectedWallet(wallets);

// Get the embedded wallet address or send a transaction.
embeddedWallet.address;
const provider = await embeddedWallet.getEthereumProvider()
provider.request({method: 'eth_sendTransaction', params: [...]});

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Upgrade a guest user to a logged-in user

Simply call login() to enable the guest user to upgrade their account to a logged-in account using any authentication method of their choice.
// login: (options?) => void
const {login} = usePrivy();

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Enable a guest user to delete their guest session

Call logout() to enable the guest user to delete their guest session. This is an important interface to support so that users who start a guest session but would prefer to log in with a pre-existing account, are able to do so.
// logout: (options?) => void
const {logout} = usePrivy();

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Resources

React starter repo

Get started with React and Privy.

Next.js starter repo

Get started with Next.js and Privy.

Whitelabel starter repo

Get started with a whitelabel Privy integration.