Next Beta Release Soon?

EnerJi
EnerJi
Community Member

It's been about two months since the last Android beta, and if memory serves, that was a very minor beta release. Any chance we'll see one this week? It would be a nice Thanksgiving surprise. :)

I can't help but hope the extra time means the next release will be a big one, and that we'll see one or more of the backlogged features crossed off the list. Teams is an obvious candidate, as are fingerprint support and Material design, but there's also improved search, multiple vaults (non-Teams), Google Drive, and more that have been promised (or at least hinted) at being in the pipeline.

On a side note, it's been said before, but as a multi-platform household, I can't wait for feature-parity across platforms. It will be music to my ears the day new feature announcements are accompanied by "and now rolling out across the iOS App, Mac App, Google Play, and Windows Stores."


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

Comments

  • ntimo
    ntimo
    Community Member

    I just got my Nexus 6P so I can't wait for the new Beta, with fingerprint support. Please realese it soon please :)

  • AGAlumB
    AGAlumB
    1Password Alumni

    @ntimo: Unfortunately we don't have anything to announce yet, but your passion and persistence are definitely motivating factors! :lol:

    It's been about two months since the last Android beta, and if memory serves, that was a very minor beta release. Any chance we'll see one this week? It would be a nice Thanksgiving surprise. :)

    It would be a nice surprise, but unfortunately I don't think it's in the cards. Interestingly, releasing an update right before a holiday when we might be a wee bit "out of the office" could potentially be a not-so-great idea. :crazy:

    I can't help but hope the extra time means the next release will be a big one, and that we'll see one or more of the backlogged features crossed off the list. Teams is an obvious candidate, as are fingerprint support and Material design, but there's also improved search, multiple vaults (non-Teams), Google Drive, and more that have been promised (or at least hinted) at being in the pipeline.

    Hm. Interesting hypothesis... ;)

    On a side note, it's been said before, but as a multi-platform household, I can't wait for feature-parity across platforms. It will be music to my ears the day new feature announcements are accompanied by "and now rolling out across the iOS App, Mac App, Google Play, and Windows Stores."

    Hear hear! Cross-platform consistency is hard, but it's something we'll continue to work toward. Due to, well...humanity, we probably won't ever be able to roll out big features simultaneously, but I think we can get much closer to it at least.

    But there just isn't any way to schedule development and testing cycles to correctly anticipate challenges and issues that arise, so to do simultaneously release we'd have to hold things back on the platforms that finished on time or early (ha!), and to be honest I'm not sure we have that kind of patience: when we have something awesome to share, we really don't want to wait. :lol:

  • pomajp
    pomajp
    Community Member

    Can't wait for a new 1P for Android. I just switched from iOS to Android with the Nexus 6P, and 1Password, of all the apps that I use on the regular, is the least valuable on Android.

    I hope and expect that, in time for Teams to come out of Beta on Dec 1, we have an Android app that has:

    • Teams support (already mentioned)
    • Fingerprint Support (already mentioned)
    • Multi-Vault support (may be taken care of with Teams support)
    • Material Design (already mentioned)
    • Widgets for individual vault logins
    • Autofill / Autocomplete (via a 1P keyboard?) in apps and the Chrome browser.

    Not having these features makes 1P for Android pretty much unusable for me.

  • Hey @pomajp! Our team is working hard on the next major version of 1Password for Android. It will include many of the features you mentioned and we are super excited to be able to share it with our users.

    There are no plans to release a beta for December 1st (sorry!), but December is a great month full of surprises. ;) We will try our best to get it out as soon as we can. Stay tuned for more details!

    As for filling in external apps and browsers, we already have a 1Password Keyboard implementation that can be enabled by going into 1Password's Setting > Filling. For more information, have a read through this guide:

    https://support.1password.com/guides/android/filling.html

  • AGAlumB
    AGAlumB
    1Password Alumni

    I think pomajp meant that 1Password for Teams is coming out of beta on December 1st...but as far as I know that's not the case. Maybe I missed that announcement. :lol:

  • EnerJi
    EnerJi
    Community Member

    Same here @ntimo. Just picked up a Nexus 5X on the Black Friday sale. Hard to believe that Agile Bits had working code for fingerprint support over six months ago, and it's still not in the hands of even their beta testers. Ironic, isn't it, given that Agile is in the company's name?

  • EnerJi
    EnerJi
    Community Member

    @brenty said:

    But there just isn't any way to schedule development and testing cycles to correctly anticipate challenges and issues that arise, so to do simultaneously release we'd have to hold things back on the platforms that finished on time or early (ha!), and to be honest I'm not sure we have that kind of patience: when we have something awesome to share, we really don't want to wait.

    I respect that Agile has a different philosophy on this, and it's your prerogative, of course. I'm just one piddly (but passionate) user out of many. However, from my perspective, I would much rather you hold back software and do coordinated releases.

    This is what happens when a multi-platform user reads your blog or newsletter announcements: an initial rush of excitement, followed by a crush of disappointment as we realize that since the feature is launching on only one or two platforms, we won't be able to truly take advantage of that feature until months (or possibly, years*) later.

    I get that Agile Bits started as an Apple-only developer and can probably react more quickly and be a bit more "agile" on those platforms. However, I also suspect that many of the top decision-makers live in Apple-only worlds, and don't see things from the perspective of households and companies that have to support a mix of Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android. For those of us in that bucket, those awesome features that you "just can't wait to share" become more of a frustrating tease than something to truly get excited about.

    *Case in point: multiple vaults and the next-generation file format, both of which launched with some fanfare over two years ago and have yet to come to Android.

  • AGAlumB
    AGAlumB
    1Password Alumni

    @EnerJi: As many other passionate users like yourself have pointed out, 1Password for Android is due for a serious upgrade. You're right that we're had fingerprint support working for a while, but rather than simply tacking on that individual feature, we're taking the opportunity (and time) to do a lot more work there as well.

    However, from my perspective, I would much rather you hold back software and do coordinated releases.

    Thanks for letting us know! I think opinions on this subject can be pretty divisive, so I'd be interested to hear what others think as well. Personally, I feel very strongly to the contrary, but I don't imagine that everyone agrees with me.

    This is what happens when a multi-platform user reads your blog or newsletter announcements: an initial rush of excitement, followed by a crush of disappointment as we realize that since the feature is launching on only one or two platforms, we won't be able to truly take advantage of that feature until months (or possibly, years*) later.

    You're absolutely right, and that's why we don't typically announce things or blog about them before they're ready. In the case of fingerprint unlock, we had an opportunity to work with a new Android feature before it was even announced publicly, and of course with 1Password being demonstrated on stage at Google I/O the cat was out of Schrödinger's box and it would have been pretty silly of us to remain silent ourselves!

    In the case of 1Password for Teams, there isn't much I can say besides that adding a single major feature like Teams or fingerprint is a lot of work on its own, and we've got a lot more than that in store for Android. It also isn't a terrible thing from a development perspective to have fewer clients supporting Teams as we beta test not only the functionality but also the server infrastructure.

    For those of us in that bucket, those awesome features that you "just can't wait to share" become more of a frustrating tease than something to truly get excited about. *Case in point: multiple vaults and the next-generation file format, both of which launched with some fanfare over two years ago and have yet to come to Android.

    You're absolutely right about this, and I know exactly how you feel: it's really a huge bummer to see something awesome on another platform and not your own. I'm a huge Blizzard fan, and they've always supported both Mac and PC; but with their new game Overwatch, it's going PC and console only, and my Mac is my main (i.e. most powerful) computer. Ouch.

    And while the silver lining in your case is that AgileBits is committed to bringing 1Password for Teams (and many other features on your wishlist) to Android, it does take a lot of time and energy, and I realize that the wait can often feel interminably worse than if we'd said "not gonna do it". :(

  • EnerJi
    EnerJi
    Community Member

    I just wanted to say thanks for engaging like this in the forums. You guys provide amazing support, and it's a rare privilege to be able to provide feedback and actually feel like a company is listening to their users (even if we don't always like the answers we get!)

    Looking forward to the next Android update.

  • AGAlumB
    AGAlumB
    1Password Alumni

    Me too! Thank you so much for the kind words. And likewise: we couldn't do what we do without your support! It's a privilege to be able to interact with you and the rest of our awesome customers like this daily...and frankly we get such great feedback this way! I really appreciate your patience while we're hard at work on the next version, and your encouragement motivates us even more to make great things. Hang in there just a bit longer! :chuffed:

  • Snpbond
    Snpbond
    Community Member

    Only 7 days remaining on my beta license, should we be switching back to the app on the play store?

  • There's no need to switch to the stable channel unless you prefer it. If you'd like to continue being a beta tester, by all means stick with the version you have. :) We will update the beta before the expiry, so no need to worry.

  • ntimo
    ntimo
    Community Member

    @peri so there will be a new beta next week?

  • EnerJi
    EnerJi
    Community Member

    @ntimo I imagine so, but it won't necessarily be "the" beta update we've all been waiting for. They could easily re-push the previous version simply with an extended expiration. Hoping for the "big" update of course...

  • AGAlumB
    AGAlumB
    1Password Alumni

    Haha, me too! Hopefully we won't have to say "These aren't the droids you're looking for" for much longer. :eh:

  • yetanotherdave
    yetanotherdave
    Community Member

    So, the beta expired today, no sign of a new one yet either. Should I ditch the beta and go back to the play store version?

  • Dmitry_N
    Dmitry_N
    Community Member

    A new build was released yesterday. Try restarting 1Password or your device to get the notification.
    Actually, there are no changes in the new beta except the extended testing period until 2016. What a shame! :(

  • scgf
    scgf
    Community Member

    I just got notification of the beta, but when I click 'Update' I am told that 'the permission to access the external storage permission is not set. Please contact the developer'. How do I proceed?

  • @yetanotherdave, Sorry to hear that your beta expired. As Dmitry_N mentioned, we did release an update yesterday. Can you please sign up for our beta newsletter again, just to verify that you're on our list?
    https://agilebits.com/beta_signups/androidnewsletter.html

    If you have unsynced data, you can work around this issue by manually changing your system date, so your Android will still allow you to use it. I suggest that you change the system date to September. However, you may have to try a different time period.

    You should then be able to launch 1Password normally and sync your vault. Then you will have a safe copy backed up of your agilekeychain before you update the app. At that point, since your vault is safe, you will be able to change the system date back and update the beta version without losing any data. Then just exit and relaunch to see the update notification, or check your email for the download link. :)

    @scgf, It sounds like you need to allow installations from sources other than the Play Store. To do so, open your device settings and tap Security. Scroll down and toggle "Unknown sources" on. Let me know if you're able to update now!

  • scgf
    scgf
    Community Member

    That's one of the first things I do on a new Android phone. Unknown sources is set to on. I have had to go back to the release version because I couldn't be without 1password for any length of time. I still have the apk of the beta which had expired.

  • Thanks for the update, @scgf. I believe this is because of the new permission system in Android Marshmallow, and it looks like the in-app update via HockeyApp requires storage permission.The workaround for this is to enable storage permissions in Settings > Apps > 1Password > Permissions, or by going directly to the download link the the beta update email.

  • scgf
    scgf
    Community Member

    OK. Just uninstalled the release version, enabled storage permission in settings and installed the old beta, but now it says it has expired and gives me no opportunity to install the new version. Should it be this difficult?!

  • scgf
    scgf
    Community Member

    I got no update email BTW.

  • Thanks for the update. Please follow the above instructions in my response to yetanotherdave. That should do the trick!

  • EnerJi
    EnerJi
    Community Member

    Since I started this thread and we are now discussing the latest Android update debacle, I thought I would link to my experiences with this latest beta expiration that I posted on another thread:

    https://discussions.agilebits.com/discussion/comment/263234/#Comment_263234

This discussion has been closed.