Is a "Confirm Email" input good practice when user changes email address?

Question

My organization has a form to allow users to update their email address with us. It's suggested that we have two input boxes for email: the second as an email confirmation.

I always copy/paste my email address when faced with the confirmation. I'm assuming most of our users are not so savvy.

Regardless, is this considered a good practice? I can't stand it personally, but I also realize it probably isn't meant for me. If someone screws up their email, they can't login, and they must call to sort things out.

Answer 1

I've seen plenty of people type their email address wrong and I've also looked through user databases full of invalid email address.

The way I see it you've got two options. Use a second box to confirm the input, or send an authentication/activation email.

Both are annoyances so you get to choose which you think will annoy your users less.

Most would argue that having to find an email and click on a link is more annoying, but it avoids the copy/paste a bad address issue, and it allows you to do things like delete or roll back users if they don't activate after say 48 hours.

Answer 2

I would just use one input box. The "Confirm" input is a remnant form the "Confirm Password" method.

With passwords, this is useful because they are usually typed as little circles. So, you can't just look at it to make sure that you typed it correctly.

With a regular text box, you can visually check your input. So, there is no need for a confirmation input box.