Your auto fill solution Android 5

Matust
Matust
Community Member

Firstly I just wanted to say I've enjoyed using 1 password on my Android, PC and iOS devices.

I can't help but feel you have gone the wrong way with auto filling on Android 5.0. I have been using a 4.4 device where it works well but is fiddly (changing keyboards) and I understand why it is done like this. I have been using another password manager on a device with Android 5.0 and it is much more useable. It's is essentially a one touch solution, where you press a button in the notification panel, enter your password if required and your done. With the extra features offered in accessability in Android 5.0 it seems a waste not to take full advantage of them.

Keep up the good work.

Comments

  • RichardPayne
    RichardPayne
    Community Member

    Sticky post at the top of this board:
    https://discussions.agilebits.com/discussion/36307/new-1password-keyboard-and-filling#latest

    That said, which app is filling using the notification drawer? It would be interesting to see and for Agilebits to consider.

  • Matust
    Matust
    Community Member

    Thanks, I have read that post. I wasn't sure if I should name a competitor in this forum but since you asked it is safe in cloud's beta app that has has enabled filling this way.

  • Hey @Matust, thanks for your interest in 1Password!

    As you read in the sticky that Richard linked, the previous implementation of in-app filling required Lollipop, so it wouldn't work for a large number of Android users who have not yet upgraded to Lollipop. Your device running 4.4, for instance, would not be able to use the in-app function as it previously was.

    Furthermore, the previous implementation had some issues that would not fix. The common workaround for those times that in-app filling simply will not work is to automate copying login credentials to the clipboard and pasting into the appropriate fields. However, as we've publicly stated, we will not automate copying our users' secure data to the clipboard.

    Since clipboard automation is out of the question for us, that left us with an implementation of in-app filling that would simply not work for a large percentage of customers who are not yet using Lollipop, and would not work in many cases for customers who are using Lollipop.

    We decided to go with the custom keyboard and accessibility service since it allows for in-app filling virtually everywhere, and also allows us to live up to our name of being a secure password manager by avoiding the clipboard.

    I hope I was able to shed some light on why we went with the current implementation! Please let us know if you have further questions. :)

  • RichardPayne
    RichardPayne
    Community Member

    @peri what is wanted is the current keyboard in addition to a proper keyboard agnostic filling routine.

  • We are working on several improvements to the keyboard that should help! Keep an eye out for the beta update and let us know what you think. ;)

  • vincenzojose
    vincenzojose
    Community Member

    Hi all, I thought I would chime in here as opposed to starting a new thread.

    I understand the reasoning for using the custom keyboard, what I'm questioning is why AB would alter the functionality of the native Android keyboard in any way other than adding the password fill-in? For example the native android keyboard allows long press of the top row keys to quickly enter certain numbers and for typing via swipe. Those are two features I use quite a bit and I'm sure other users would have their own favorite features.

    Was it not possible to simply clone the native Android keyboard functionality and add the 1password elements? Is that the ultimate goal possibly?

  • Hey @vincenzojose. :) Thanks for getting in touch with us!

    Indeed, it was not a viable option for us to clone the Android keyboard and add the 1Password autofill functionality. However, we are taking feedback seriously, and hoping to improve our keyboard's usability in the future.

    I'll go ahead and add your vote for numbers on the top row and swype functionality. :) Let us know if you have any further questions or feedback!

  • vincenzojose
    vincenzojose
    Community Member

    Thanks for the quick response @peri.

    Just to clarify, my suggestions assume the vision of the 1Password keyboard is that users will make it their default input method. This would make 1Password autofill a seamless experience. If the vision is instead for users to switch to the 1Pass keyboard only when trying to autofill, then something like swipe may not be a priority feature (although long-press numbers would still be awesome).

    Again thanks for the response, looking forward to see what the update cycle brings.

  • Our goal is to provide a seamless experience for both use cases! We want our users to feel comfortable with using 1Password as their default keyboard, but at the same time we want users that prefer using another keyboard feel comfortable with switching to 1Password's keyboard at the time of filling. We will continue to improve our keyboard and we really appreciate your feedback. :)

  • unseenvision
    unseenvision
    Community Member
    edited April 2015

    I'd love to switch over to 1Password, but LastPass does a much better job at auto-fill on mobile and in most other situations in my opinion. I'm not trying to be rude, but LastPass is much more popular than 1Password and they are doing fine without the need for a special keyboard. Yes, Android 4.1+ is required to fill apps and 4.3+ to fill Chrome with LastPass, but again...they are a well known password management service and are somehow doing fine with this direction. I've read the forum post on why you decided to go this route so I don't expect you to change everything based on my feedback but I felt the need to share because I paid for 1Password on my mac but never use it because I prefer the way LastPass does everything. I guess that's the great thing about having options.

  • RichardPayne
    RichardPayne
    Community Member

    but LastPass does a much better job at auto-fill on mobile and in most other situations in my opinion.

    Personally I found LastPass' filling support on Android to be quite flakey.

  • One thing we've consistently been against is putting our users' data on the clipboard. Especially on Android, the clipboard is susceptible to sniffing, and we would never want to be responsible for putting customer data somewhere someone else could gain access to it. Using the custom keyboard and accessibility service is the only viable method we found to both fill user data into login fields virtually everywhere, while also avoiding use of the clipboard.

    Of course, you have to go with what suits you best. However, I hope our users take some comfort in knowing that 1Password puts security ahead of convenience all the time. :)

This discussion has been closed.