validating email addresses are actual and real when they are submitted

  • 17 January 2021
  • 34 replies
  • 4782 views

Userlevel 7
Badge +6

folks - a quick question that I am trying to find answers to across the Typeform ‘estate’ of documentation but not having success in finding:

it is always an issue with asking for email addresses from respondents - easy enough to validate the format of an email but not so easy to know on submission if the email address is valid. ie joe@yeahyeahyeah.ca  - the format looks fine but is this a real email address?

is there an integration with an email verification tool that is available (i could not see one in the list)? 

I know there are several different workflows that can be used to verify and validate that yes someone did indeed complete the form (ie an email notification to the user that says thanks for message and either asks them to confirm their email address and sends a hidden field back to another typeform, etc, as per the tutorials and the help doco) but rather than have to address exceptions coming back from ‘bad email addresses’ etc., is there an integration to something like xverify, kickbox, etc??

 

just checkin’

 

picsoung 1 year ago

Hey @scifice 
While we may not be able to offer this feature right at the moment, there are probably ways to integrate this in your worfklow.

I understand that it might not be ideal, but it could be a solution for now.

Do you use anything like Zapier or Integromat/Make?
You could use tools like Hunter.io or Kickbox

Or even use a system like Twilio where an email get sent with a unique code.

Happy to help out while our Product team is working hard to build this feature.

View original

34 replies

Userlevel 7
Badge +5

That's a very good question, Des. We receive feedback and suggestions about the email validation very often.

 

This integration checks the validity of the email address when adding a new contact to Typeform. Is this what you're looking for? 

I'll also loop @Liz here as she might have more suggestions to share. It is a holiday in the US, so she is enjoying the time off outside the community today - but you can expect a response from her soon. 😊

Userlevel 7
Badge +6

@Mariana - thanks for reply.. i think it does, but will have to explore.. 

for example, when you completed the tshirt survey (thanks again),  you chose to add in your email address and it is in the google sheet. what i am trying to avoid is having ‘bogus’ email addresses submitted - a) if i had email notification turned on and sent an email back to “you” after submission, without any validation i might not see that it is a bogus/invalid email until i see a response back that it is undeliverable, but i already have the bogus email in the database, b) i guess i can use a workflow that accepts the input from the typeform prior to any email validation routine, BUT have the start of a ‘validation process typeform’ embedded in the email i send you that will confirm that you actual receive and clicked the validate button, and then have the google sheet update a custom field that says confirmed, which would trigger my process. 

still i think it would be easier to use a tool like DeBounce or something else in that realm of tool, to validate, rather than write my own routines .. 

@Liz - enjoy MLK day and look forward to any advice you can provide.. 

 

cheers

 

des

 

“Life is too short for bad coffee”

Userlevel 7
Badge +5

Hi @john.desborough !

I asked our devs if they have any fancy workarounds, and while they don’t at the moment, they did let me know this is something they’ve been discussing to see if they can natively build a solution or an integration to validate the addresses. They just contacted another service about it to follow up on the possibility, and if I do hear any updates, I’ll post them here. :)

Userlevel 7
Badge +6

@Liz - thanks and please keep me posted! This is an important thing for a lot of ‘wasted time’ we could be spending tracking down invalid emails. 

separately i have been tracking down the path of DeBounce and Kickbox who seem to indicate that they have Typeform integrations (maybe with a zap) but if there is something that could be done from a ‘native solution’ to connect to a pay-for service, that would be simply awesome imho. 

 

thanks 

 

des

__​​​​​​

I.Must.Get.Up.  My coffee needs me!

Userlevel 7
Badge +5

Hello, @john.desborough - will do! A native integration would be so handy and definitely prevent those responses that don’t have real emails. If you’ve used either of those services and have any feedback you’d like me to pass along, please let me know! 

Userlevel 7
Badge +6

@Liz  - kicking tires to find a way to do this in process stream… feeling my way through at the moment but i will send what i find out.. cheers

 

des

Userlevel 7
Badge +5

Hi @john.desborough - I wanted to pop back in to let you know our developers are working on creating this integration. It’s a two part process - part one, to create a solution that can work right now and part two, creating a solution that is seamless within the Typeform builder. Part one is quicker to build, so as soon as I have an update, I’ll share it with you! :) 

Userlevel 7
Badge +6

WOOHOOO @Liz 

 

des

Userlevel 7
Badge +5

@john.desborough 

 

Badge

Hi there, sounds like some great dialog here… glad to hear something is in process. I would also like an email validation as part of the workflow… so intro piece… let’s begin, What’s your name?, What’s your email? (sub describe this as we’ll email you to continue, we want to make sure it’s you), person gets emailed and they click a link in their email to validate and continue. Wondering if perhaps this could be done with two typeforms, one that starts the process and emails the person doing the form and then a second which is a hidden link that is provided in the email?

While this may seem not very user friendly at first glance… when doing a longer and more complex process for a sales tool / prospect assessment (for example) we want to make sure we’re only getting real prospects and not every marketing person and competitor just trying it. Or at least if they try it we will know who they are. Sure they could create a temp email address but that’s a lot of work. :)

Anyways I welcome further thoughts / discussion on this.

Thanks,

Andrew

 

 

Userlevel 7
Badge +5

@AD4 This is an interesting idea, and I’m sure you could set it up with respondent notifications! Are you looking to use a specific email service provider? 

Badge

HI Liz, thanks for jumping in here… when you say respondent notifications… that sounds interesting. How might I do this? We use Hubspot for sales but we use Intercom for service. Maybe we can integrate with Intercom to send a message? What were you thinking? How might this work?

 

Userlevel 7
Badge +6

@AD4 This is an interesting idea, and I’m sure you could set it up with respondent notifications! Are you looking to use a specific email service provider? 

@Liz  @AD4 - if you put this into a two-typeform approach, and sent the the respondent notification with the hidden field as part of the URL that would take them to a second form from the email, that would work.

you could even send them a unique ‘code’ in the respondent email as part of the message (compose a text variable that takes part of the respondent name - see statement by AD4 above - and add 135 to it .. something to make it a little unique) and tell them they will need to enter this code into the typeform to which they were redirected on completion of form 1 (send hidden fields to typeform 2 including the unique code, email etc. ) … the ‘landing page’ of typeform 2 would have a note like “please enter the unique code that was sent to you in our validation email) - this way they would have to go to the email to get the code to continue. 

upon entry of the unique code in tf2, you could validate it against the hidden field passed into the second form and then, if matches, off you go to the next question . 

 

at least that is the logic my 4th coffee is telling me and the other voices in my head right now. 

thoughts??

des

Userlevel 2
Badge +1

All the above is way beyond me, I draw a pretty pictures (well, hopefully) and have faith that the software will deliver a basic check like this (like Mailchimp does).

Am now stuck and disappointed that my £49.00 a month doesn’t include this. Bum!

Userlevel 7
Badge +5

Hi @Sarah-Jane I definitely understand the frustration and wish this was a feature we had! I’d suggest sharing your feedback on the post below, too, for our product team to see. :grinning:

 

@Liz What is the latest status on this feature?

I am trying to integrate NeverBounce with Typeform via Zapier but that still allows the person to fill in a full form with a fake email address. That is not very helpful. Going through an email is a slow process. 

What is the update on integrating this live?

 

Thank you!

Userlevel 7
Badge +5

Hi @DianeD Thanks for stopping by the community! Our product team doesn’t currently have this on the roadmap, I’m afraid, but if I have any updates, I’ll post them here. :grinning:

Hey Liz, I second this would be a really helpful feature to have :thumbsup:

I want email validation functions, plus would love something via SMS text as well. “Enter your phone, then type in the code to continue”
Please and Thank you

Userlevel 7
Badge +5

Thanks for the feedback, @Keith of UpHero ! We’ll share this with the product team. Let us know if you think of anything else. :grinning:

Hi! Wanted to ask if there were any updates on this thread? Has anyone found a work around, while the native solution is being built?

This is becoming a major problem for our company & really need a fix.

My client need to do an email verification before the user start with the form. Is there any way to do it? we have more than 700 emails. 

Userlevel 7
Badge +5

Hi @cristinahernandezdesign Thanks for dropping by the community! I added your question here where we have the answer and some workarounds. 

This is an essential part of the entire form submission process.

We have clients like medical professionals, architects, fashion designers, etc and Typeform fits perfectly as a solution.

The only reason I'm unable to offer them this product, is due to the verification process.

It seems irrational and borderline deceiving, when the client is (sort of) paying for every lead; only to find out that the leads are most likely bots or people trying out the tool, etc etc 

I see that your team has been trying to carve out a solution since more than a year now, but can we at least have an ETA or confirmation that this essential feature will or will not be available?

Userlevel 7
Badge +6

There are companies in the market that have tools that will validate an email address - hundreds of them. Why do we expect typeform to do that validation inside their form?

We live in an app-based society, where many of the apps are point functionality. 

Why don’t we consider using the tools that are fit for purpose and better thinking through our business process flows? 

Maybe you have a simple typeform that asks for the email address only. Then an api call to pass that email address to ‘validation app’ and if the result comes back fine, you pass them into the next typeform that collects the data that you want.. 

That functionality exists in the typeform APIs (from everything that I can tell) and it is up to US to figure out what tool we want to incorporate into the workflow process. 

We need to stop being so lazy and expecting typeform to ‘do everything’ natively… at least for now.. 

</soapbox>

and yeah, I know i started this thread but have been working through finding alternatives to solve my own problem… and this seems to be the best approach ie two forms with the api call in the middle. just sayin’ that i learned up a bit over the past year

 

Reply