Patent ID: 8458775

Claim:
A method, comprising: receiving a directive to transfer a currently authenticated user account associated with a first application executed on a client to a second application executable on the client; responsive to the directive: obtaining from a common credential store, authentication data describing the currently authenticated user account associated with the first application detecting whether the second application has been executed at the time of receiving the directive; comparing the currently authenticated user account associated with the first application and a user account associated with the second application; switching control between the first application and the second application without transfer of the authentication data when the user accounts associated with the first application and the second application match; transferring the currently authenticated user account associated with the first application to the second application when the user accounts associated with the first application and the second application differ; and in response to the transferring, replacing the user account associated with the second application with the currently authenticated user account associated with the first application; and exposing on the client an authentication interface callable via a plurality of applications of the client to perform the transfer of the currently authenticated user account, wherein the authentication interface performs the receiving of and responding to the directive and communicates with an authentication service via a network for each of a plurality of applications of the client to cause authentication of user accounts with respect to the plurality of applications.