AWS Cognito: how to allow users to change email without sending verification code?

Question

In my Android app, I want my users to be able to change their email addresses (that they use to connect to their accounts), without getting any verification code by email.

So far, I manage to change the email address, and thanks to a lambda, set email_verified to true automatically. But unfortunately, an email is still sent with a verification code...

Here is what I did in my Android app:

public void onClickChangeEmail(View view)
{
    CognitoUserAttributes attributes = new CognitoUserAttributes();
    attributes.getAttributes().put("email", "[email protected]");
    CognitoSettings
            .getCognitoUserPool(MainActivity.this)
            .getCurrentUser()
            .updateAttributesInBackground(attributes, new UpdateAttributesHandler()
    {
        @Override
        public void onSuccess(List<CognitoUserCodeDeliveryDetails> attributesVerificationList)
        {
            Log.i("tag", "Email updated!");
        }

        @Override
        public void onFailure(Exception e)
        {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    });
}

And in my AWS console, I added a trigger in Cognito on Custom message, and here is my lambda function, which is triggered everytime a user updates his email:

const AWS = require('aws-sdk')
AWS.config.update({region: 'eu-central-1'});

exports.handler = (event, context, callback) => {
    if (event.triggerSource === 'CustomMessage_UpdateUserAttribute')
    {
        const params = {
            UserAttributes: [
              {
                  Name: 'email_verified',
                  Value: 'true',
              },
            ],
            UserPoolId: event.userPoolId,
            Username: event.userName,
        };
        var cognitoIdServiceProvider = new AWS.CognitoIdentityServiceProvider();
        cognitoIdServiceProvider.adminUpdateUserAttributes(params, function(err, data) {
            if (err) context.done(err, event); // an error occurred
            else context.done(null, event); // successful response
        });
    }
    else
    {
        context.done(null, event);
    }
};

The only workaround I found is to throw an error instead of context.done(null, event);, but it doesn't look like a clean solution.

Is there a better and cleaner way to prevent Cognito from sending a verification email?

Thanks for your help.

Wandile Khowa Wandile Khowa · Accepted Answer · 2020-01-07T13:07:11

I am calling the Cognito API in my Springboot Service and I am able to update a user's email without getting a verification code. In my adminUpdateUserAttributes() method, I am passing in:

Name: 'email_verified', Value: 'true'

together with the email field that needs to be updated and it updates successfully without sending an email. Maybe the labda doesn't work correctly or they have fixed the bug since this is an old question.

AWS Cognito: how to allow users to change email without sending verification code?

1 Answers