Nintendo will stop letting people sign in to Nintendo Accounts with a Google or Apple account on January 26, 2027, and is directing affected users to a password or a passkey instead.
From that date, it will no longer be possible to link a Google or Apple account to a Nintendo Account, according to a notice on Nintendo’s support site. Users will not be able to log in with either account or use one to create a new Nintendo Account. A My Nintendo rewards mission that awarded Platinum Points for linking a Google account is also being discontinued. Nintendo said the exact end time may be delayed depending on the progress of the system change.
People who are already logged in on a device may not have to log in again. If the login page does appear, they will need to use the email address or Sign-In ID and password for their Nintendo Account, or a passkey.
Nintendo describes a passkey as a login method that uses a smart device’s authentication methods, “such as fingerprint or facial recognition, instead of a password,” and encourages users to register one “for an easy and more secure login experience.” A passkey is a cryptographic credential in two parts, a public key held by the service and a private key that stays on the user’s device. Germany’s GMX and Web.de switched on passkey logins for their email users in July.
Users who never set a Nintendo Account password, or have forgotten it, can request a reset email from the login page, which Nintendo says may take some time to arrive. Those who no longer have access to the email address registered to the account are told to contact Nintendo for help updating it. Google, one of the two sign-in providers being dropped, added a selfie-video backup for recovering its own accounts in July.
The notice does not give a reason for the change, which applies to accounts used with the Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch Lite and Nintendo Switch OLED Model. Nintendo apologized for the inconvenience to people who have been using a Google or Apple account to log in.
Sources: Nintendo
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By the ID Tech Editorial Team
