A GOA application typically creates GoaClient object to get a list of accounts and listen for changes. Each account provide one or more specific services (such as mail, calendaring or contacts) so the application will need to set up a filter for the services it is interested in. For example, a mail application would only be interested in GOA accounts with mail- and contacts-services, not accounts with calendaring-services. Applications can use methods on the GoaObject type (such as goa_object_peek_mail()) to check what kind of services an account provides. Note that this list can change at run-time if e.g. the user toggles a Use account for Mail check-button.

Applications may use the Account.Id property as a unique key to store information obtained from an account.

Applications must not destroy data if an account object is removed (e.g. when the “account-removed” signal is emitted) - for example, if the goa-daemon program crashes or is restarted on software upgrade, account objects will be removed only to be added back the next time goa-daemon is started.

Applications should use the Account.ProviderIcon, Account.ProviderName and Account.PresentationIdentity properties when presenting an account in an user interface. For example, for a hypothetical online services provider Acme, this would be the Acme Logo, the word "Acme" and the identity could be either an email address such as <some.name@acme.com> or an user handle such as davidz25 or chunkylover53.