Feature request: Unlock with phone

DrRZ

Unlocking 1Password with Window Hello works great, but you still have to enter the master password whenever the app closes/restarts (such as with every app update or Windows reboot).

I understand that you are working on a way to avoid this on computers with TPM 2.0, which will be wonderful.

Unfortunately, older systems don't have TPM 2.0 and it's generally somewhere from hard to impossible to add it to those systems.

As an alternative, I was thinking it would be really useful if we could unlock 1Password using our smartphone using the 1Password app on the smartphone (which itself can be unlocked using biometrics even after reboots). I don't know how this would work technically, but in terms of UI I envision something similar to the way 2-factor authentication apps work. When attempting to open a locked 1Password on your PC, you'd get a notification on your phone asking to authenticate the login. Microsoft has this exact process as an option to login to Microsoft accounts without using passwords. When you attempt to login, you get a notification on our phone on the Microsoft Authenticator app. In some cases, it will also give you a number and on the phone it will show you several numbers and you need to click on the corresponding one.

I want to start onboarding my family on 1Password, but I feel the need to frequently enter a strong password will be a barrier.

Thanks for considering.

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1Password Version: 80500103
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: Windows 10

Ben

Hi @DrRZ

Thanks for taking the time to write in about this. At this stage, I'm not aware of any secure way of sharing the necessary secrets for decryption from a phone to a computer. We'll continue to monitor this space though. I'd love to be able to offer something like this. 😍

Ben

DrRZ

Could it be done through Bluetooth?

Ben

Any solution here would likely utilize Bluetooth, but Bluetooth itself isn't the answer to all of the challenges.

Ben

Ryan Parman

I'm genuinely interested in being educated about why 1Password for Mac supports unlocking with Apple Watch, but can't be unlocked with a phone.

I know the original post was about Windows and "a phone". Not sure if there is a technical difference here between the Apple and non-Apple ecosystems.

To be clear, I'm not requesting this feature. I'm simply interested in @Ben's response.

Ben

Apple offers a framework for unlocking Mac apps with Apple Watch through a secure channel. No such framework exists for apps on the Mac to unlock using an iPhone.

Ben