Sign up by email or by phone

Every new member of your academy proves who they are with a one-time code before they can get in. How members sign up decides where that code goes, and so what they sign in with from then on:

• Email (the default): the code goes to their email address. They sign in with email and password.
• Phone number: the code goes to their phone by SMS. They sign in with phone number and password.

If you want an SMS code (OTP) at sign-up, choose Phone number.

In this video · 2:15

1. 0:00Where to find it
2. 0:25Email sign-up
3. 0:43Phone sign-up
4. 1:19A new member joins
5. 1:57Good to know

Read the narration

1. 0:05Every new member proves who they are with a one-time code. You choose where that code goes: to their email, or to their phone by SMS.
2. 0:15Open Settings, then General, and the Members tab.
3. 0:23Click Configure student onboarding.
4. 0:26The first choice is How members sign up. It applies to new students, instructors and admins alike.
5. 0:34With Email, the email is required and locked, because it is what members sign in with.
6. 0:40At sign-up, LessonQ emails a code to that address. Until they enter it, they cannot get in.
7. 0:48Now pick Phone number. This is how you turn on SMS codes at sign-up.
8. 0:54The sign-up page on the right changes at once: the phone number is required, and the email is now optional.
9. 1:01Every sign-up code is one SMS from your SMS balance. If the balance runs out, nobody can sign up by phone, so keep it topped up.
10. 1:11Members who already joined keep signing in the way they joined.
11. 1:16Click Save changes.
12. 1:20Now let's see it the way a new student does, on your website's sign-up page.
13. 1:26They type their name, their mobile number and a password.
14. 1:37They click Sign Up…
15. 1:40…and LessonQ texts a six-digit code to that number.
16. 1:44They type the code, and they are in. Their number is now verified.
17. 1:50Their account shows the number as Used to sign in.
18. 1:57From now on they sign in with this number and their password. A forgotten password is reset with an SMS code too.
19. 2:05More guides are at help.lessonq.com.

Before you start

• Who can do this: the academy owner and admins.
• For phone sign-up you need SMS balance. Every sign-up code is one SMS. See When the SMS balance runs out.
• It applies to new members only. Members who already joined keep signing in the way they joined.

Open the onboarding settings

1. In your dashboard sidebar, click Settings, then General.
2. Open the Members tab.
3. Click Configure student onboarding at the top right (or Edit beside Member onboarding).

1. Members tab.
2. Configure student onboarding opens the window where you change everything on this page.
3. Member onboarding summary: How members sign up (Email or Phone number) and each sign-up field and how it’s set.
4. Phone verification: whether members must verify their phone. In a phone sign-up academy this row is Email verification instead (see Make members verify their phone or email).

Choose how members sign up

1. How members sign up: Email or Phone number. It applies to every new member: students, instructors and admins.
2. The field members sign in with shows Required · used to sign in. It can’t be hidden or made optional.
3. Every other field can be Not shown, Optional or Required. See Choose what the sign-up form asks.
4. Sign-up page preview. It shows exactly what your sign-up form will look like, and changes as you change the settings.

Switch to phone sign-up

1. Under How members sign up, pick Phone number.
2. Read the SMS warning and check your Current SMS balance below it.
3. Decide what to do with the email field (now a normal field): Optional to collect it when members have one, Required to always get one, Not shown to never ask.
4. Click Save changes.

1. Phone number chosen.
2. SMS warning with your current SMS balance. Every sign-up code, resent code and password-reset code is one SMS.
3. Members who already joined keep signing in the way they joined. This note appears whenever you change the method.
4. In the preview, Phone moves to the top beside the name, and Email becomes (optional).

To go back to email sign-up, pick Email and save. The phone field gets back the setting it had before. Phone verification does not: switching the method turns it off, so set it to Required again if you want it.

What a new member sees

With phone sign-up

1. On your website’s sign-up page, they type their name, phone number and a password (twice), and anything else you ask for.
2. They click Sign Up.
3. LessonQ sends a 6-digit code to their number by SMS and shows the code screen.
4. They type the code and click Verify OTP. Their number is now verified and they’re signed in.

1. Phone (used to sign in), with a note that a code will be texted to it.
2. Email (optional), because the academy left the email field Optional.

1. The last digits of the number the code went to.
2. The code boxes. Resend code works again after a minute.

Their account then shows the number as Used to sign in:

With email sign-up

The same steps, with the email: the code goes to their inbox, and the code screen shows part of their address.

1. Email: what they’ll sign in with.
2. Phone (optional): a normal field, set to Optional by default.

Signing in and forgotten passwords

The sign-in form has one Email or phone box, whatever you chose. A member types either contact they hold and their password, and LessonQ finds their account.

• Forgot password? sends a reset code to what they sign in with. It can also go to their other contact, but only if that one is verified. See Forgot your password.
• A member who signed up but never typed their code is sent a fresh code when they try to sign in.

Good to know

• Only new members change. After a switch, members who joined before keep signing in the way they joined. On their account they can add the other contact; nothing forces them to.
• Staff follow it too. New instructors and admins (from an invitation) sign up the same way as students.
• Invitations need only one contact. When you invite or add someone, give their email or their phone. If the contact you give isn’t the one they’ll sign in with, they type it when they accept and prove it with a code straight away.
• One account per number. A number already used by a member can’t sign up again. Siblings who share a phone need their own numbers, or email sign-up.
• Changing what you sign in with. A member can change it from their account, but the new email or number only takes over after they type the code sent to it.
• Limits on codes. A new code can be requested once a minute. An SMS code lasts 5 minutes and allows 3 tries; an email code lasts 10 minutes. To protect your balance from bots, each academy can send up to 300 SMS codes a day before members sign in (sign-up, resends and password resets). Past that, visitors see the same “SMS service is off” message as when the balance is empty.

When the SMS balance runs out

With phone sign-up, a sign-up with no SMS balance is stopped before any account is made. The visitor sees that SMS service is off for your academy right now, and nothing is charged.

Members who already joined can still sign in with their password; only codes (sign-up, reset, verification) stop. Top up the SMS balance from Manage Subscription and sign-ups work again at once.

Caution

Email codes come from your email balance in the same way. Keep both topped up, whichever method you use.

What if…

A student says the code never came. Ask them to wait a minute and tap Resend code. Check your SMS balance, and that the number is typed correctly. A code lasts 5 minutes.

A student typed a wrong number at sign-up. The code went to that wrong number, so they can’t finish. They can sign up again with the right number. The unfinished account stays locked: nobody can get into it without the code.

I switched to phone sign-up, but old students still sign in with email. That’s expected. They keep their way of signing in. New members use the phone.

I want an SMS code at sign-up but students should still sign in with email. Use email sign-up with Phone verification: Required. Students verify the phone from their account before they can enrol or pay. See Make members verify their phone or email.