Autofill apps is inconsistent/confusing
I got a new Android 11 phone and used the day to migrate from my old smartphone.
I found it somewhat tedious and inconsistent to recover the account data for all my apps from 1Password, so I'm asking myself if I did the intended workflow.
I don't talk about browser or web pages, I only talk about apps.
1P was the first app I installed on the new phone, then I read the 2 kb articles and enabled 1p for autofill accordingly.
But with no app 1p appeared automatically.
I had to tap the username field and wait for the popup menu appear that offers pasting from clipboard. In the "..." menu, there was a "autofill" entry I tapped, then 1p appeared sometimes, and if it appeared, I was able to search for the the login in 1p. However, 1p warned me to enter the login data, because it could not verify the app corresponds to that login. I allowed it and data was autofilled. According to kb article, 1p will ask after login to save the login/app ID to this entry to make the app/1p connection, but that never happened.
With some apps, for example the Steam app, 1p didn't start start on "autofill" for the username field. However, it appeared with the password field, and I was able to autofill the password. But it was impossible to get 1p fill in the username. I had to change to the 1p app, unlock it, search my Steam login, copy the username to the clipboard, change back to the Steam app, then paste the username. Extremely tedious - because of such a tedious workflow I left my previous password manager! That had a keyboard emulation that made this half as tedious.
And there were also apps that completely refused to be autofilled. With these, I had to work completely through clipboard. The fastest worflow was actually through my Windows PC and using the 1p desktop app. Changing to the 1p app twice, for username and for password, and always having to unlock the 1p app and always having to again search for the login is extremely tedious, so I stopped using the 1p Android app.
Instead, I established a link with the Microsoft "Your Smartphone" app, which enables clipboard sharing between Android and Windows. Then I searched for the login entry in 1p Windows, copied username/password, then were able to immediately paste it to the android app.
I was able to get all the work done, but I'm confused with the different app and autofill behaviors. Is this app-specific, or did I something wrong/unintended? As far as I remember, I could fully autofill only the minority of apps.
Apps I remember I entered new logins:
Amazon Shopping (autofill worked, also automatic 2fa through clipboard worked - great)
Deutsche Bank (refuses to be autofilled, banking apps are evil)
Discord (worked)
Samsung email app (imap account)
Postbank Finanzassistent (don't remember, banking apps are evil)
Lieferando (very strange, app popup says "content cannot autofill". only clipboard works)
MyFRITZ! (worked, as far as I remember)
Payback (worked)
Post & DHL (autofill only password)
REWE (worked)
RMV (refuses to be autofilled)
Steam (autofill only password)
Verimi (don't remember)
Whatsapp (don't remember)
Wikipedia (autofill both)
1Password Version: 7.7.6
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: Android
Sync Type: Families account
Comments
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Hello @Tertius3 Thank you for reaching out! We're sorry to here your experiencing issues with Autofill. As long as you've turned on Autofill, Accessibility, and Autofill previews, then the majority of apps and sites should Autofill correctly.
Autofill is very tricky, because we are not the only involved party. When Autofill doesn't work as expected, it can be due to how a browser or app is developed, due to their specific sign-in page and how it's coded, due to the Autofill service itself not detecting the fillable fields and letting us know, or due to us doing something incorrectly. This is why you may see different behaviours and issues in different apps and sites. When issues arise, we test them out and report them to our developers, so they can further investigate. That's why we really appreciate when you bring these filling issues to our attention.
Could you please let us know what device you're using?
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It's a Samsung S20 FE, purchased in Europe, German language.
ps. ok, I exaggerated a bit with "only a minority of apps are autofilled", but one app with no or only partial autofill needs as much time as 10 apps that have everything autofilled.
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After much research, 1Password isn't to blame (much). My issue is understanding, and arises mainly from:
- Many Android settings and helper functionality is renamed and rearranged and reorganized for every new Android release
- Help and documentation is available in English, but my Android is in German.
Your kb article about enabling Autofill. If I enable "Accessibility" according to it (on Android 11), some large Android configuration opens with many categories I don't know what to do here. It's all in German and contains 7 submenus. It all has to do with enabling support for disabled persons. If I enable something here (I can enable multiple things), a little man icon appears at the bottom right of my screen, which does either nothing or a tool like a magnifier appears. With input/1password I don't see any effect.
Now, I found out that if I choose the Accessibility submenu called "Installierte Dienste" ("Installed services"), I find 1Password as one service. I tap it and enable it. There is an additional setting: "1Password-Shortcut". I enable it as well, because it sounds good - no mentioning what that does in particular
Now, if I try to enter the Steam username, nothing has changed. No autofill, no 1Password. I tap the little man icon, but it only offers some toggle 1Password on or off, nothing else.
Now, I revisited all the accessibility submenus and found out the little man icon goes away if I unselect everything. And if I enable 1Password as only item service and item and disable "1Password-Shortcut", the man icon is replaced with a keyboard icon whenever keyboard input is requested. Now I can tap that keyboard icon and choose 1Password as keyboard and can select username and password to be pasted in the current input. Yeah!
(If I enable "1Password-Shortcut", the keyboard icon is again replaced with the man icon and it has no visible functionality, and no input helper is available any more.)You may find this trivial to setup, but consider my Android is in German, and the translated terminology is sometimes surprising and no dictionary or machine translator translates any English kb article to the exact terminology used in the GUI of my German smartphone. And it's not my day job to learn every Android setting in existence.
You also mention split screen for drag and drop username+password. Well, this is completely confusing. In the past, I never used split screen. The linked Google article about using split screen doesn't work. I don't even find that setting to enable this gesture (tap the screen bottom and move to the top). After quite some research, I found out split screen, at least with newer Samsung phones, is implemented via some "Paneele" sidebar. This is an additional small transparent shortcut bar, perhaps Samsung-specific. This actually works. But honestly, starting 1password in split screen mode would be my only reason to use this paneele and split screen. A smartphone screen is simply too small to split. In a week I probably forgot how to start something split screen.
tl;dr:
Please consider revising+extending your kb articles, and:- add screenshots and setting locations for different Android releases
- consider making small videos that show how you configure and how you actually perform autofill with the different levels of support (autofill, keyboard, clipboard). This will help people with non-English smartphones tremendously!
- in every documentation and in such videos, please always start from the home screen of the phone. Don't assume the user has already started something or opened something and has some specific app or configuration window open. I repeat: Settings organization differs greatly between Android releases, vendors and language translations.
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Hey @Tertius3, first of all, thank you for all of the research that you've put into understanding Autofill on Android devices.
Now, I found out that if I choose the Accessibility submenu called "Installierte Dienste" ("Installed services"), I find 1Password as one service. I tap it and enable it.
This experience is correct. Once you tap on Accessibility within the 1Password app, you'll be redirected to your device's Accessibility services settings where you will have to tap on Installed services in order to successfully enable Accessibility.
Enabling Autofill works the same way, where you are redirected to your device's Autofill settings, but requires less steps.
There is an additional setting: "1Password-Shortcut". I enable it as well, because it sounds good - no mentioning what that does in particular
After Android 11, there's now two Accessibility options that you can enable, the Accessibility service itself and the Accessibility shortcut. Only the service is necessary, and the shortcut does not provide anything with regards to 1Password, which is why nothing happens when you tap on it. The shortcut can instead be used for another type of Accessibility service, like TalkBack or Magnification: https://support.google.com/accessibility/android/answer/7650693?hl=en#:~:text=Choose a shortcut:,swipe with TalkBack turned on.
Now, if I try to enter the Steam username, nothing has changed. No autofill, no 1Password.
Steam has known filling issues. I've passed your report along to our development team.
The linked Google article about using split screen doesn't work.
This article is specific to Google Pixel devices. Because there are such a vast number of Android manufacturers, from Samsung to Google to Xiaomi to Huawei, and not to mention, many more Android devices and models, it's difficult to list the steps for each specific device. Regardless, we understand that this can be a confusing user experience, and I'll pass your feedback along to our team.
Please consider revising+extending your kb articles
We're always looking to improve, so we really appreciate your feedback regarding our documentation. We have a limited number of German articles available, and we're constantly working on publishing more articles and languages.
That being said, we have some exciting Autofill improvements coming soon, so we'll definitely be revising our documentation :)
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Getting an enhanced Android autofill sounds very good. Looking forward to it!
If it comes to documentation, consider to replace static images in your help pages with small 5-10 second long videos running in a loop. Not a link to a big Youtube library, not an embedded Youtube video, but instead a seamlessly embedded animated *.gif or embedded *.mp4 file that shows a click or tap workflow to get the thing done that is described in that article. I recently stumbled upon a game wiki that contained animated gifs and mp4s instead of static images to visualize a function, and this is worlds ahead in terms of understanding. You just see it and you understand.
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