Some questions regarding existing and upcoming features

Hi @Backspaze,

I apologize in advance if some of these already have been answered but I couldn't find anything when searching.

No need to apologize, we don't have much documented either since this is an early beta and a lot of major changes are coming.

Is the browser extension necessary to be able to auto fill credentials?

Yes, the browser extension integrates with the web sites, so it can analyze the input fields and determine what can be filled. It also determines when something needs to be saved. It also allows us to support credit-card and identity filling as well as other features.

This allows us to be very accurate most of the time and in many cases, prevent mis-firing the sensitive data from being filled into the wrong field such as your password going into a search box or even the address bar.

If KeePass can do that, couldn't a similar (customizable?) keyboard shortcut be implemented in 1Password, thus avoiding the need for yet another add-on in the browser, and also to be able to auto fill credentials in other apps as well?

We have basic Auto-Type support in 1Password 4 and we're still investigating what we can do for 1Password 6, it's not on top of our list because most of our users use the extensions and we need to focus on that first.

Auto-Type does allow you to auto-type in all apps most of the time and some users do use this instead of browser extensions. It works most of the time but we've seen cases where they've accidentally typed their password into the search boxes or other fields not expected, causing a security issue.

Is there any way to change the category of an object?

There isn't a way to convert the category. We'd like to do this in the future but for now, it is not possible to do this. The Logins, Credit Cards, and Identities are special categories that works with the extensions to fill in your data, so this is the original reason why we can't convert categories as the template must be precise, for the extension to know which type of data each field has.

Since folders isn't available for some reason,

For the moment, only tags will be supported for organizing your items. We're getting rid of folders due to the confusion caused by having tags, smart folders, and static folders altogether. Folders and tags tend to be the same thing most of the time and tags can be more powerful than folders, which is why we're starting off with just tags only.

I like to keep my taskbar clean and want to be able to minimize 1Password to the system tray. Is this something that will be possible in a future update?

It should be, I'll add your vote to our list.

Also, from an earlier conversation with support I got the impression that the only app that would be available for Windows 10 users would be the one from the Windows Store, as the new desktop app would only be compatible with Windows 7/8

We do apologize for the confusion. This is still technically the case but the desktop app does run on Windows 10 as you said. Let me clarify with a post I've written elsewhere in the forum:

There are going to be two separate apps that's built from a single unified C# codebase that is not limited to Windows 10:

1. 1Password 6 for Windows, the desktop .NET program that'll run on Windows 7, 8.1 and 10, available to download from our site. It will extend to have more powerful features that the UWP app may not have.
2. 1Password 6 for Windows 10, the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) app that'll run on all Windows 10 devices, including Windows 10 mobile, Halo Lens, Xbox, and etc that is only available in the Windows 10 Store. It will take advantage of many of the UWP-only features, such as Windows Hello.

As you've mentioned as well, the desktop app is an option for users who cannot use the Windows Store, such as those at work.

When double clicking on a password to display it in big font style, it fills up the full width of the screen but only shows 40 characters with no ability to scroll.

Thanks for the bug report, I can confirm that and we'll get it fixed.

Hi @Backspaze,

Just an update, the latest 179d version has support for minimizing to tray. Some users want an option to do this, so we'll look at adding a setting as well.

Hi @Backspaze,

We have no plans to add a setting for everything and will be limiting this as much as we can. Each single setting makes the app twice as complex to maintain for both users and our team. A large number of our users weren't even aware of many settings available and worse, certain settings made the app more complex or confusing to use, so we want to reduce or eliminate by doing more with less settings.

From what I can tell the UI on Mac, UWP and the web seems to (somewhat) closely match one another with button placement, making it consistent and easy for users switching between platforms. The desktop version on the other hand has some differences in the layout, with buttons like New Item, Edit and Browse at different places compared to the others.

@Backspaze: I agree. This is definitely a challenge, not only on the technical level, but also trying to strike a good balance in the design. Thanks for your feedback on this!

I know you're focusing on other things than the look of the app right now, but it would of course be preferable if as many platforms as possible has the same UI. I'm guessing streamlining the UI to match the different platforms as much as possible is on your to do list?

Yes! One example we've discussed regarding the Windows version specifically is Options
/Settings. Windows 10 uses a very specific convention here (take a look at the Windows Settings app, with categories on the left), and we want to make 1Password familiar to Windows users. After all, a lot more people use Windows than use the 1Password.com web interface! So right now we're focused on trying to offer the similar settings/options/features across platforms as much as possible, while retaining a native look and feel. It's a delicate balancing act though, so we definitely appreciate any suggestion you have as we work to refine it!

On another note, will the Admin Console ever make it's way to any of the apps or will it always just be accessible from the web?

Yknow, that's something I've longed for myself at times. I'm not sure we want to bring all of the Admin Console settings to the apps since that would make things more complicated, especially any time we make a change. Right now a single change affects only the website, whereas having this in the apps may require 5 updates at once! However, there's definitely a strong case to be made for certain functions to be available in the apps themselves. And there may be a way to get "the best of both worlds" in regard to bringing Admin Console features into the apps themselves. It's something we're exploring. ;)

Hi @Backspaze,

I noticed that both the UWP and the desktop app seem to have the same layout. The images in the MS-Store are obviously from an older version that was more similar to the web interface.

Yep, we didn't update the screenshots in the last upload as we try to update it every once in a while instead of each single time. The reason is that it takes lot of time and efforts to produce the screenshots while we were shipping multiple small updates with a lot of changes at the time. Unfortunately, the store doesn't allow us to change screenshots after the fact, so we have to wait until the next update to address this.

The reason I'm being picky about it is that it makes it a lot easier for me to support my family if the UI is consistent and the buttons are "where they should be" regardless of what platform they might be using at the moment.

We absolutely agree and it is absolutely vital that we reduce our learning curve, so that any person can pick up the app on any platform and know what to do. Right now, 1Password, unfortunately, has too much of a steep for new customers. We will continue to focus on that as we keep making changes and setting the right defaults. Right now, we need to get auto-save implemented because that's what people expect to see right off the bat.