Parity between 1Password X and 1Password native?

I am in the process if onboarding my company's staff onto 1Password. We made the decision to deploy the 1Password X extension for two primary reasons:

  • it's the same extension on all platforms (we have people on Windows, Mac, Linux, and FreeBSD)
  • this extension injects a 1Password logo into the username / password form fields on a webpage.

The first bullet above is flexible, and we thought having this consistency might make the support burden lower. The second bullet above is important to us because it's something the majority of our users have come to expect from our previous password management product.

The thing is I feel the native application and extension are still superior in other ways (TouchID support and 1Password Mini outside the browser to name a couple).

It's also a bit confusing why the extensions don't have feature parity. Regarding my second bullet above, why doesn't the native extension have an option to show the 1P logo in a page's login form?

Is parity something that's planned?

Thank you!


1Password Version: Not Provided
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: Not Provided
Sync Type: Not Provided

Comments

  • kaitlyn
    kaitlyn
    1Password Alumni
    edited March 2020

    Hi @berto! 👋

    These are some great questions, and I'm happy you brought them up.

    I first want to point out that you're absolutely able to have the 1Password desktop app installed alongside 1Password X (as long as your company allows it). I do appreciate having access to 1Password mini outside my browser, so I've got both 1Password X and 1Password for Mac installed on my machine. I use the desktop app for a few other things too, like moving my items around to different vaults and adding tags, for example. I prefer 1Password X in my browser (the inline icons/menu makes things really efficient), but that doesn't necessarily mean you have to use only 1Password X. Now that we've got that out of the way, onto your questions.

    The thing is I feel the native application and extension are still superior in other ways (TouchID support and 1Password Mini outside the browser to name a couple).

    Touch ID is an incredible feature, so I empathize with you there. It's something that's on our radar and we'd love to bring to 1Password X across all platforms. That said, since 1Password X is a standalone extension rather than an extension connected to an app, we run into some limitations when it comes to utilizing Touch ID. It's something we're actually already beginning to implement in the 1Password X beta as well as the 1Password for Mac beta – we call it Desktop App Integration. What it does is gives 1Password X the ability to communicate with 1Password for Mac, and therefore, share lock states between each other. Long story short, the long awaited Touch ID unlock is currently available although only in the beta versions on macOS. Now that doesn't sound like it'll be available to everyone at your company since folks use different platforms, but just know that it's something we're working towards making available on Windows in the future as well.

    It's also a bit confusing why the extensions don't have feature parity.
    ...
    Is parity something that's planned?

    I can see how this would be confusing from an outside perspective. We offer two completely different extensions to 1Password users. One is the companion extension that acts as a bridge between the 1Password desktop apps and your browser. 1Password X, on the other hand, is an extension we originally built with Linux users in mind (since we don't currently offer a Linux desktop app). That's why it acts as a full-featured app baked into an extension – the awesome part is that it doesn't need a desktop app to function. The two extensions don't have feature parity simply because they were made for extremely different use cases. Feature parity in general is a focus for us these days, so we not only recognize it as an opportunity, but we're making strides towards more feature parity across all of the 1Password apps (not only the extensions).

    Regarding my second bullet above, why doesn't the native extension have an option to show the 1P logo in a page's login form?

    The 1Password companion extension, at least on macOS, doesn't actually contain any UI. It's all based off of the 1Password desktop app. That information itself doesn't necessarily answer why, but I touched on it a bit in my last paragraph. Injecting a 1Password icon into fillable fields is a feature that I know I've grown to love. In my opinion, it would make more sense to go the route of Desktop App Integration (what I mentioned earlier) on all platforms, which would mean that you'd get both Touch ID unlock as well as the 1Password icon inside fillable fields.

    Your feedback is extremely important to us, and I really appreciate you sharing yours with me. It's lovely to see different use cases and pain points users experience to help improve 1Password for everyone. :)

  • berto
    berto
    Community Member

    Thank you, @kaitlyn. I will try Desktop App Integration. :)

  • On Kaitlyn's behalf, you're very welcome @berto! Let us know how it goes. :)

  • berto
    berto
    Community Member

    I got it working. For anyone else having trouble:

    • install the native app beta release
    • install the 1PX beta release
    • launch activity monitor and kill any 1Password processes; they will re-launch themselves
    • login into 1PX with all the associated accounts; in my case both my work and personal accounts
    • magic ✨💫
  • Thanks for sharing, @berto. :smile: I prefer to advise opening and then quitting 1Password completely with Control-Option-Command-Q rather than going into the Activity Monitor. If you have any further issues (or if anyone else has any trouble getting Desktop App Integration up and running), please let us know. Cheers!

This discussion has been closed.