Getting started with Amazon Cognito - Amazon Cognito
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Getting started with Amazon Cognito

This section describes the top Amazon Cognito tasks and where to start. For an overview of Amazon Cognito, see What is Amazon Cognito?.

The two main components of Amazon Cognito are user pools and identity pools. User pools are user directories that provide sign-up and sign-in options for your web and mobile app users. Identity pools provide Amazon credentials to grant your users access to other Amazon services. You can use user pools and identity pools separately or together.

Top tasks and where to start
Add sign-up and sign-in with a user pool

  1. Create a user directory with a user pool.

  2. Add an app to enable the hosted UI.

  3. Add social sign-in to a user pool.

  4. Add sign-in through SAML-based identity providers (IdPs) to a user pool.

  5. Add sign-in through OpenID Connect (OIDC) IdPs to a user pool.

  6. Install a user pool SDK.

  7. Customize the built-in hosted web UI sign-in and sign-up pages.

  8. Configure user pool security features.

  9. Customize user pool workflows with Lambda triggers.

  10. Gather data and target campaigns with Amazon Pinpoint analytics.
Manage users in a user pool
Access resources

Common Amazon Cognito scenarios:

Sign up for an Amazon Web Services account

If you do not have an Amazon Web Services account, use the following procedure to create one.

To sign up for Amazon Web Services

  1. Open http://www.amazonaws.cn/ and choose Sign Up.

  2. Follow the on-screen instructions.

Amazon sends you a confirmation email after the sign-up process is complete. At any time, you can view your current account activity and manage your account by going to http://www.amazonaws.cn/ and choosing My Account.

Secure IAM users

After you sign up for an Amazon Web Services account, safeguard your administrative user by turning on multi-factor authentication (MFA). For instructions, see Enable a virtual MFA device for an IAM user (console) in the IAM User Guide.

To give other users access to your Amazon Web Services account resources, create IAM users. To secure your IAM users, turn on MFA and only give the IAM users the permissions needed to perform their tasks.

For more information about creating and securing IAM users, see the following topics in the IAM User Guide: