Feature parity across versions ever going to happen?

BrokenHope
BrokenHope
Community Member

Are we ever going to have the multiple 1Password apps sync up in terms of features?

There’s some clients that have notes that support markdown, there’s at least 3 different password generators that don’t share features (iOS, Windows, 1Password X)

It’s frustrating that depending on which client I’m using I may or may not have access to certain features or the password generator doesn’t offer the same options.

Comments

  • Hi @BrokenHope,

    That's a great question, and one that's near and dear to my heart. It drives me a little bananas to see those kinds of inconsistencies.

    The good news is that we've gotten a lot better, and 1Password 7 is a massive step forward in that regard. Our goal is absolutely to have all apps be consistent with all others. The fact that we hadn't put a ton effort towards that until relatively recently has given us a large hill to climb, but we're getting there. The password generator you see in 1Password X is where all apps should be headed. The one in 1Password 7 for Windows isn't that far off from that one. Mac and iOS are using the old style generator and need the most work. The great news here is that we've built the new generator that's a part of 1Password X in such a way that the other apps can reuse that code and "just" need to create a new interface in front of it. That makes it easier for us to implement it consistently everywhere. Heck we're even planning on bringing 1Password X's generator to our command line tool.

    Markdown support being a new feature is a little different. If we had to wait until all clients supported a feature before releasing it, we'd release features a lot less often. Releasing it on one platform and getting feedback on it is the best way for us to iterate. We've gotten great feedback about Markdown and are adjusting things. The plan is roll it out everywhere relatively soon.

    The new Watchtower is similar. We first released it on 1Password.com and tweaked things based on feedback in time for the 1Password 7 for Mac release.

    I don't think we'll ever be at the point where all of our apps are perfectly the same, and I think that's actually a good thing. Each app needs to conform to its platform and do what's right there. There's no use holding back Spotlight support from the Mac app because Windows doesn't have a system level indexer that works the same for example. But for the important 1Password features we're trying really hard to bring more consistency and I hope that that starts showing once version 7 is out everywhere.

    Rick

  • AGAlumB
    AGAlumB
    1Password Alumni

    I guess relatively soon for markdown is looking like within the next 6 months since a month later and I can still only view Markdown in 1Password X and on MacOS which means my notes look odd on Windows and iOS. Non of the current beta releases for Windows or iOS support viewing Markdown either.

    @BrokenHope: Well, that's a pretty pessimistic view, and not quite true. We've also got it in beta for 1Password for iOS. :) You probably noticed that Markdown support was brand new in 1Password for Mac first less than two months ago, and as you mentioned it's also in 1Password X now. I think Android and Windows might take a bit longer since we have a lot of work to do with the details view and editing in general on both platforms, but we're getting there.

    I know software development isn't always fast but I still find it highly annoying that one of the main reasons I pay for the subscription is so I can use all apps on all platforms and yet as said before I don't get the same experience on each platform.

    Would you prefer that we held features back until they were ready everywhere? For example, what if 1Password for Mac didn't have Markdown support until all of the apps did? As Rick mentioned, there are good reasons to start somewhere and iterate. As we polish it in the Mac app, it means that the other apps can follow that lead. If we shipped it everywhere at once, all of the apps would need to redo things as we found that some things needed to change. I'm not sure that's better than the current situation.

    Like when I want to create a new login I prefer to use 1Password X because it has the most up to date password generator. You've just recently released 1Password X 1.8 which again adds features that as far as I know aren't on the other versions, which increases the differences between the different platforms even further.

    I'm glad you're enjoying 1Password X! Especially the password generator. I'm a fan too. But this is another good example: we've made a lot of changes to the new password generator in 1Password X since it was first released, and if we had to update all of our apps each time as we refined it, we'd be wasting a lot of developer resources doing the same thing over and over. Once things settle down with the password generator and we're happy with the design, we can more easily roll it out on other platforms.

    You're not wrong to want consistency. I agree that it's an important thing. But there are other considerations too. We'd all be worse off (and have a lot less cool stuff in all of the apps) if we prioritized full feature parity above all else, so we'll continue to balance that along with other things that are also important: security, convenience, stability, and other quality of life improvements that roll out with each update since our developers are free to do things other than just slavishly copy all of the other apps. I know it's hard to wait for something cool to roll out everywhere, but we're working on it. Thanks for your feedback on this, and enjoy your weekend! :)

  • rkdietz
    rkdietz
    Community Member

    old thread; but as a new user/reviewer; it is clear that it would be preferable to prioritize features. And yes; if available for platform x before platform y; go ahead and release it. But don't abandon the other platform? Two years later; I don't own a Mac; and just searching for "how to" articles; I realize how limited the windows application is. bummer.

  • This is something we've struggled with for as long as 1Password has existed on multiple platforms. In a way part of that is, I think, inherent to developing native apps across different platforms. We realize it isn't ideal, and we've tried a few different things to address it. None of them have been very successful thus far, as you can see. For the next generation of 1Password apps we are again going to try to make the apps as consistent across platforms as possible. I'm optimistic, but I can't make any promises. The proof (or not) will be in the release notes, I suppose. :)

    Ben

This discussion has been closed.