Why do websites use “email” and “username” interchangeably as log-in credentials?
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People frequently forget their username. I know, I know! *You* would never! But people do, all the time – to the point where the websites let you recover your username by telling them the email address associated with your account.
That obviously requires them to ensure that email addresses are unique, just like usernames (which they want to do anyway so you don’t create 837 accounts for yourself as JoeBob, JoesephRobert, JBMcFly…. all for [email protected]) and it’s computationally trivial to check for an account under both your username and your email address, so modern sites do exactly that for your convenience: Tell me whichever identifier you remember and I’ll do the rest!
(If you’re asking the *other* question – “Why do some sites use your email address **as** your username?” – it’s mainly because most people have one email address and are very unlikely to forget it. Plus we need your email address anyway to communicate with you, and email addresses are pre-guaranteed to be unique: No race to reserve your preferred username, and if someone says their email is [email protected] and I have an account for that email but they don’t know the password I tell them I will email a password reset link so they can log in again.)
Source: I build a lot of this shit. Please send help. Or alcohol. Or both. Both is good.
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