1P8 first thoughts - mixed bag
Well, have to rewrite this, because in testing things, I had to close safari to get it to launch 1Password from the menu bar (clicking the open 1password button didn't do anything), and lost what I'd written before. Looks like 1P8 has inherited that bug from iOS (which is going to be a deal breaker).
Anyway, I've been using 1P for a long long time. It was a mac-native application that provided critical security functionality, and I've recommended it to literally thousands of people when I speak on CyberSecurity. In the past, when I've raised concerns about functionality and/or UX issues, Agile has been really responsive - from the security of the cloud vaults, to sharing functionality, and most recently, with 1P7 making it easy to accidentally enter your passphrase into the website - they responded and fixed it (thank you).
Many of us raised concerns about electron, both from a resource requirement, as well as a substandard UX. Unfortunately, Agile plowed ahead, essentially abandoning their mac UX in favor of cross-platform least common denominator single-code base development. Reduced development cost at the price of higher resource costs and reduced user experience and functionality. That's a tradeoff decision they made, which came with risk. They've done a decent job of mitigating the worst of it, and to be fair, it's the best electron app I've used, but there's still some lingering issues.
Having tried 1P8, here's some thoughts:
- A lot of the UX issues can be fixed in preferences: categories, not tags in sidebar for instance. Compact layout fixed most, but not all of the excessive whitespace that's common with electron apps.
- Loss of 1P mini is unfortunate. Quick access isn't remotely a replacement. Really need to revisit that decision. I'll just use the full app.
- Search experience is sub-par. Would really like to be able to set the scope to 'everything, only what's in the list filter, or everything except password history (especially that latter since I have ~15 years of generated password history in it, including multiple ones for the same site).
- Please continue to work on the excessive UI whitespace.
- What's with the lock screen now? Where did that silly little icon come from and how can I get rid of it?
- Like the new watchtower top screen, but why is showing me passwords from my historical generation list when I've already updated the actual login? Ditto on weak ones - why show me old generated passwords, when the actual login is much stronger? For reused passwords, why sort by password (which are randomly generated), and not by the login that was most recently used for each duplicate password set?
- Sorting - thank you for putting numbers at the top, not at the bottom like Apple insists (wrongly) on doing.
- Credit cards: Need to split the option from 'show passwords and credit cards'. I want to see the number, but have the CCV hidden. Link the CCV to password preference and show the CC number.
- definitely much more resource intensive than 1P7. typical electron app. Unfortunate but livable on my modern machines. Older machines it'll be an issue.
- When one electron app hangs, they all do. Have seen this before with others, so will lose access to 1P until a reboot when it happens. Not unique to 1P (and one of the reasons I dislike electron).
- Need to fix the safari bug where it doesn't communicate with the app (exists on iOS - rarely have gotten it to work there). Have now had it happen twice in the last 15 minutes, requires a safari restart to work again. This is a deal-breaker
- Sharing should default to 1 hour, not 7 days. Difficult to share with iOS/iPadOS users because the in-browser extension is unreliable and only works about 1 time out of 5.
- Quitting 1P does not lock it - bug, needs to be fixed asap. App should auto-lock when closed.
All in all, it's not as bad as I feared, better than I hoped. Most of the remaining issues are like getting pecked by a duck - I can live with it, but still annoying. There's one security bug (failing to lock on quit), one security risk (excessively long sharing links), and the only real deal-breaker is the safari toolbar icon not working - that has to be fixed very quickly.
1Password Version: Not Provided
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: Not Provided
Comments
-
Would appreciate someone from Agile chiming in on the questions/feedback/bugs/security issues listed above.
0 -
I suspect it's because they can't make it work cross-platform with a single code base. Least common denominator UI limitations. For me, using the app itself isn't a huge deal, but I really wish I could get rid of that cheesy little icon on the lock screen. it's like fingernails on a blackboard. First world problem mind you, and the security bug and safari disconnect are much bigger issues.
0