Allow choosing between SFSafariViewController and ASWebAuthenticationSession for signInWithWebUI

[Kirvlawc]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

According to the documentation, Amplify.Auth.signInWithWebUI automatically uses ASWebAuthenticationSession on iOS 13.0+ and falls back to SFAuthenticationSession for older versions.

The problem with this approach is that it assumes all use cases require data sharing between the app and Safari. However, some scenarios actually prefer keeping authentication data isolated within the app, relying on SFSafariViewController cookies instead.

In my use case, this default behavior causes session continuity issues. After logging in, when users open web views within the app, they are forced to log in again because SFSafariViewController doesn’t have access to Safari’s cookies. This disrupts the user experience and limits the flexibility of authentication flows.

Describe the solution you'd like

Would it be possible to provide an option to use SFSafariViewController instead of ASWebAuthenticationSession for signInWithWebUI? This would allow developers to choose the most appropriate authentication method based on their app’s needs.

Describe alternatives you've considered

Opening webviews with ASWebAuthenticationSession

While using ASWebAuthenticationSession does provide access to Safari’s cookies—ensuring session continuity—it results in a suboptimal user experience. This is because every time an ASWebAuthenticationSession is opened, Apple forces the user to interact with a system prompt, even for standard web browsing. This disrupts the user flow and makes it impractical for scenarios where seamless navigation between authenticated web content is needed.

Is the feature request related to any of the existing Amplify categories?

Auth

Additional context

No response

[github-actions]

This has been identified as a feature request. If this feature is important to you, we strongly encourage you to give a 👍 reaction on the request. This helps us prioritize new features most important to you. Thank you!

[vincetran]

Hi thanks for reaching out. We have taken this in as a feature request as the original intention was to move completely to using ASWebAuthenticationSession. Further discussions from the team will be needed to determine if we want to support this ask.

[Kirvlawc]

Any feedback on this as yet ?

[tylerjroach]

Nothing to report at the moment. We will post updates when available. Thank you for reaching out.