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Njones35 / Last Updated December 19, 2022

WordPress Anti Spam Captchas Have Gone Invisible

Hate spam, but not so keen on reCAPTCHA either? Good news! The invisible captcha for WordPress anti spam is ready for you.

invisible recaptcha for WordPress anti spam

Since the dawn of the internet, the anti spam battle has been raging. In recent years the tide turned, and the good guys started to win. But it was at the expense of user experience. Invisible captchas will help change all of that!

Now we finally have a spam-destroying weapon in our arsenal that is so clever, your real human users won't even notice it!

👉 Want hCaptcha on your website?: How to Use hCaptcha for WordPress Forms [Block Spam Easy!]

The history of captcha anti spam

Captcha was first used in 1997 at AltaVista. (Remember Altavista? Yeah, that made me feel old too!) It prevented bots from adding URLs to their web search engine, and was used commercially by PayPal in 2001 as part of their anti-fraud efforts.

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Later it became available to the general public and started appearing all over the internet. But it was received with the same enthusiasm as sour milk in your cereal. Everyone knew that Captcha was essential, but no one liked it!

Over the years it has appeared in many different forms. The most universally hated seems to be the garbled, twisted, smudged words that had to be deciphered before you could proceed. Is that an "i" or an "l"- a zero or the letter "O"? Maybe you see three letters where there should only be two. No matter how much you tilt your head, scoot your chair back, squint and wonder if you need new glasses, it was never a pleasant user experience.old recaptcha image spam protection

reCAPTCHA is the most famous version. Google bought it a few years back and now offers for free. In its V1 form, users had to decipher two words for reCAPTCHA. One of them (usually the easier one) was lifted from an old book. A automated OCR program had failed to read it properly, so reCAPTCHA users were actually helping Google digitize books.

But it's not just good things that must come to an end. In 2014, Google found that artificial intelligence could crack even the most complex CAPTCHA images with 99.8 percent accuracy, beating human scores and signaling the beginning of the end for text based reCaptcha.

What came next in captcha spam protection?

v2 checkbox one-click recaptcha spam protectionIf you're already a Formidable user you may be familiar with the V2 checkbox reCAPTCHA that has been included in our forms for some time now. V2 was a HUGE improvement, tracking user behavior when checking the box to determine if you are human. While a human moving the mouse cursor will always follow a slightly imperfect course, a spambot may choose a perfectly straight line or mathematically calculated curve - something Google is good at spotting!

If Google wasn't so sure, it used an image based challenge system with prompts like "click all the images that contain street signs". This approach is much harder for computers to crack, but easier and quicker for humans.

Studies showed that V2 had a much smaller impact on user experience and conversion rates. But it still had an impact. The internet demanded better!

The holy grail of reCAPTCHA spam protection

When Google announced that invisible reCAPTCHA was on its way, it caused a lot of excitement. Finally there would be a form of CAPTCHA protection that had zero impact on user experience!

Now that it's finally here, we are impressed. Big time! It works like a dream, and the vast majority of users will never even know it's there. Except for the rare occasion when your mouse movements are particularly robotic (before that first coffee kicks in) and you see the image challenge. Even better, switching your Formidable forms to use this new invisible protection is quick and simple.

How to switch your forms to an invisible captcha

Although Honeypot spam protection is included in every Formidable form, it won't stop all the spam. So the first question isn't "How", the question is "When"... and the answer is NOW! This is too good to delay, and it only takes two minutes (Literally - I timed it!). So take a little time right now to make a big difference to your online forms.

Read more: Invisible Spam Protection options

Please note that only one type of reCAPTCHA (either Checkbox V2 or Invisible) can be used per site. You cannot use V2 on some forms and Invisible on others.

Step 1 - Get new reCAPTCHA keys

Login to your reCAPTCHA account or create a new account if needed. Then follow the prompts to register a new site. Be sure to choose "Invisible" as the reCAPTCHA type you require.

Step 2 - Enter your new keys in Formidable Forms

Go to your site's Formidable → Global Settings. Insert your Site key and Secret key under the reCAPTCHA heading. Ensure you set the reCAPTCHA type to Invisible.

Step 3 - Do a little dance

anti spam dance

Yep, that's it! Two simple steps and all your reCAPTCHAs are now invisible! If you're dancing with joy, or dancing on the grave of illegible scrawls and impossible math challenges (We won't judge!) - it's definitely worth celebrating.


Please note - If you are using Invisible reCAPCHA for WordPress, and Google flags you as suspicious (most likely from testing your form with multiple submits with the same email address or from the same IP address), it may display reCAPTCHA (V2) after the Submit button is clicked to further ensure you are a human, and not a robot. This is expected behavior for Invisible reCAPTCHA.


** Bonus Fact ** Did you know that CAPTCHA stands for "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart"?

Read more about invisible captcha solutions

  • How to Use hCaptcha for WordPress How to Use hCaptcha for WordPress Forms [Block Spam Easy!]
    Read More
    How to prevent Spam Registration on WordPress The Best WordPress Spam Registration Prevention Methods
    Read More
    How to block spam in WordPress contact forms 8 Ways to Block Contact Form Spam in WordPress
    Read More

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Comments

  1. Sandi says

    July 29, 2017 at 11:51 am

    Yay! The dancing has begun.

    Reply
  2. Mark M says

    August 4, 2017 at 12:55 pm

    Followed the directions above, but Google shows 2 additional steps - a 'client side' code and a 'server side' code - I'm a lowly dude who doesn't know how to do programming code. it appears the forms aren't working with only the directions above...so no dancing for me. any further guidance?

    Reply
    • milkboy31 says

      August 4, 2017 at 1:47 pm

      You don't need the client and server code sections... just get the 2 keys from google's page, put them into the formidable "global settings" menu in your wordpress install, and change the dropdown there to "invisible" as the type of recaptcha used.

      Reply
    • Nathanael Jones says

      August 7, 2017 at 3:12 am

      Did milkboy31's suggestion work for you Mark M?
      That is exactly how it should work...

      Reply
  3. jonas says

    August 6, 2017 at 1:22 pm

    I love the dancing carlton gif. And also the new possibility!

    Reply
  4. Sandi says

    August 6, 2017 at 6:45 pm

    I can't get it to work 🙁

    Reply
    • Nathanael Jones says

      August 7, 2017 at 3:11 am

      Are you seeing an error message Sandi?

      Reply
  5. Don says

    August 7, 2017 at 9:03 pm

    I also followed what seemed to be very simple instructions from Nathanael obtaining my two new Invisible CAPTCHA keys from Google. I had to update Formidable to the latest version to reveal the dropdown selection in Global Settings but then was able to select Invisible from that dropdown. Unfortunately this just didn't work. I get an error 'The captcha is missing from this form'. The Captcha is definitely added to the form as a form element at the bottom but no joy. What else might need to be done to get it to work I wonder?

    Reply
    • Nathanael Jones says

      August 8, 2017 at 1:40 am

      Hi Don,
      Can you open a ticket in our helpdesk? I'd love to get this figured out for you.

      Reply
      • Daveed Flexer says

        August 8, 2017 at 3:10 pm

        Hello,

        Same as Don getting the same error ('The captcha is missing from this form'). I purged the cache and now got "The reCAPTCHA was not entered correctly" Instread.

        Daveed

        Reply
        • Nathanael Jones says

          August 8, 2017 at 3:28 pm

          Can you open a ticket in our helpdesk please - I'd love to track this down, figure it out & update my instructions accordingly..

          Reply
        • Flexer says

          August 8, 2017 at 8:03 pm

          Seems that this error is usually do to with the Site Key and Secret Key being off. In my case, I think it was a blank space in addition it's important to clear cache after every change as well.

          This is a great feature, thank you Formidable Pro devs

          Reply
  6. dtechplus says

    August 18, 2017 at 8:05 am

    Lovely! Didn't even take up to 2 minutes!

    Reply
  7. Pien Vink says

    November 28, 2017 at 7:35 am

    Hello,
    Just put it on my site:) How can you check if it's done correctly?
    Best Regards,
    Pien

    Reply
    • Nathanael Jones says

      November 28, 2017 at 7:39 am

      Yep - I just checked (and sent a test message) - your site is working perfect with invisible reCaptcha!

      Reply
      • Pien Vink says

        November 28, 2017 at 7:56 am

        Thnaks Nathanael,

        But how can I check it myself..when I use it for my customers?
        Can I see it in code?

        Thanks in advance

        Reply
        • Nathanael Jones says

          November 28, 2017 at 8:01 am

          Yes - even though reCaptcha is not visible on the page, you can still see it in the code if you look just before the submit button.

          Reply
          • Pien Vink says

            November 28, 2017 at 8:16 am

            Thanks..
            just purchased small business licence 🙂

            Reply
  8. Joe says

    February 2, 2020 at 10:26 am

    Nice! Went from v2 and now v3 seems to work well, I did have to add another site in my admin console on Google to get this to work with v3. So far so good.

    Reply
    • Nathanael Jones says

      February 2, 2020 at 10:32 am

      Hi Joe,
      Have you tested to make sure that is wrking properly? V3 reCaptcha is not yet supported by Formidable...

      Reply
  9. Alan Joyce says

    September 3, 2020 at 10:10 am

    I have set the Site and Private captcha numbers to v2 Invisable in Google and copied and pasted them to the Global reCaptcha settings in the free version of the Formidable Forms. Type is set to Invisable and Browser to Default.

    I continue to see "The captcha is missing from this form" when I try to test the form. I have cleared the cache as well. Using Chrome on a Mac.

    Reply
    • Nathanael Jones says

      September 3, 2020 at 10:35 am

      Can you please open a ticket in our helpdesk about this issue: https://formidableforms.com/new-topic/

      Reply
  10. Kelly says

    December 28, 2021 at 11:44 am

    This solved the problem of Captcha not working on Google Chrome! What a life saver and yeah I did the dance!

    Reply

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