[Feature Request] 1Password Keyboard for iOS 8 [secure input is disallowed on custom keyboards]

AriPorad

Hi,

I had this idea a few days ago, what if 1Password came with a custom keyboard, that when activated, would allow you to authenticate (with a master password or Touch ID), then allowed you to pick a login. When the login was selected, it would type the username, then a newline, then the password, the a newline (basically run the app extension), then switch back to the default keyboard. Essentially, this would allow you to use 1P in ANY app, simply tap the change keyboard button, select your login, and your done!

Let me know if this is unclear of if you need more information,
Thanks!
Ari

Ben

Hi @AriPorad‌

This has been suggested, however currently iOS 8 only allows the default keyboard in password fields. They will not accept input from a 3rd party keyboard.

Thanks.

Ben

AriPorad

Hi @bwoodruff‌,

That's fair, but could typing the username, copying the password, switching to the password input work? That still would lower it down to only a few taps.

Thanks for the consideration,
Ari

Megan

Hi @AriPorad‌

Thanks for the follow-up! I think that users might end up a little bit frustrated though if a 1Password keyboard could only do half of what they hoped it could... particularly if it is not able to fill in the password (which is likely trickier to type in than the username for most people.) :)

AriPorad

fair enough. Thanks!

Ben

On behalf of Megan, you are most welcome. :)

torodobrac

Not sure this is the right discussion to ask this, but is there an IOS custom keyboard in the work that would feature a 1Password key? The "share" option is a good workaround, but a little cumbersome and doesn't work everywhere…

Megan

This discussion was created from comments split from: Extension feature request.

Hi @torodobrac‌

I've merged your comment with a similar discussion in the iOS forum. As Ben mentions above, the iOS specifically restricts custom keyboards for password fields as a security measure.

We're hoping that more and more developers adopt the 1Password app extension to make logging in to apps easy and secure! :)

brettbollman

At the risk of beating a dead horse... it sounds like the second suggestion from original poster would be much more universal across iOS 8 and far less involved than the current app switching method. Even if it's not entirely automatic... it would still be a better UX because it would be in everywhere.

My use case:

1. I open an app on iOS and it immediately prompts for username and password.
2. I tap into the username and then tap keyboards icon and select my 1P keyboard.
3. I enter my one password through a standard looking keyboard. (Visual feedback can be given in the same layout space as the current iOS 8 predictive text.)
4. After successful login I see an AgileBits designer's beautiful idea of a keyboard that can easily switch between vaults and a suggested login for the app I'm currently in.
5. I tap the suggested entry and the screen changes to...
6. Two buttons... Copy Username... Copy Password. (Okay, maybe a third button to back out.)
7. I tap Copy Username... then long-tap and paste into the username field above.
8. I tap Copy Password... then long-tap and paste into the password field above.
9. iOS switches back to the default keyboard because I've now entered into a password field... I hit enter.
10. I get logged in.

No idea if that's possible... but one can dream can't they?

Megan

Hi @Brett Bollman‌

Thanks so much for taking the time to write such detailed feedback. You're right, we'd love to see the simplicity of the 1Password app extension available more extensively across the iOS. It's important to remember that what you're seeing with the 1Password app extension (and all extensions) is version 1 of a brand new (major) feature in iOS. We're excited to see how extensibility matures over time - I'm sure this feature is only going to get better in future versions of iOS!

Drew_AG

Hi @Brett Bollman,

Thanks for taking the time to give us your feedback and idea! If I understand your suggestion, you would need to have the (theoretical) 1Password keyboard open (i.e. on screen) in the other app when you want to enter your username/password. If so, the problem is that iOS 8 does not allow custom/third party keyboards to be used with secure text input objects (such as a password field). So, as soon as you need to enter a password, the system will automatically replace a custom keyboard with the system keyboard.

I'm not a developer, but I would guess that in theory, a possible workaround would be to tap in a non-secure text field (if one were available on the same screen as the password field), use the custom keyboard to copy your password, then tap in the password field (at which point the keyboard would switch to the system default) and paste your password. However, even if that is possible, that would probably make it so confusing and non-intuitive for most people to use that it would do more harm than good.

We never say never, so if creating our own custom iOS keyboard becomes a better option in a future iOS version, I'm sure our developers will look into it. But for now, I don't think it's possible to make one that would work as well as we'd want.

Thank you again for your thoughts on that! :)

cdenesha

Brett, I like your thought process and suggestion! Hopefully the developers will play with it and contact us to beta test the UI for them. :)

chris

Drew_AG

Thanks @cdenesha! Indeed, if our developers decide to make a 1Password keyboard for iOS, it would be available in the beta first.

brettbollman

Yes... nothing is ideal in this realm yet.

The 1P extension works well... but I can't imagine most are getting much use out of it. Most sites worthy of a login have an app... and most of those are just simply not going to implement the 1P extension unless its some sort of marketing effort for them. Do you guys maintain a list of apps somewhere publicly?

@Drew_AG it sounds like you're understanding what I'm saying. And yes... it would require a copy of the password before entering the password field. (And thinking more into it... that would also require that the login screen have both the username and password field on the same screen... not the newer two-step login screen that some financial sites have started to use.)

Not sure who AgileBits sees as their customer... and if you guys have "crossed the chasm" into the public majority. But to me... 1Password is a techy, early adopter sort of product. And we like fast workflows... even at the cost of a slight learning curve. Give us the keyboard that might not always work perfectly... but makes things a lot easier 90% of the time... and you'll have even more happy evangelists out there selling for you.

Most of my posts here in this forum are all about how many clicks/taps it takes to use 1P. Some of the best features that I love about 1P are just not ideal on iOS... would really love to see this keyboard/workflow implemented.

cdenesha

I too wonder sometimes if AgileBits is 'going mainstream'. I hope it continues to listen to its base of techy early adopters. I think 1Password has to be that app that does NOT fully buy into the Apple ideal of 'we make the decisions on what the feature should do and there will be no hidden settings to reverse it'. 1Password should make the initial decisions for new users. But those of us who need the extra layers of higher security need to be able to implement them.

For example, I commented several months ago on another thread about how insecure the changes to the PIN feature were (previously it would time out and then ask for the master password and now it does not; also, it is only 4 digits). No app updates yet. There are other examples with the built-in browser which is quite buggy. Frankly, it should probably be abandoned in fact and not just be neglected, now that Safari does support the 1P extension.

I personally only have a 16GB iPad so cannot afford the space to download an app for this and for that, so I do use the extension quite a bit in Safari.

Thanks,

chris

Ben

We certainly are trying to make 1Password appeal to a broader audience... An effort that I'd say started when we renamed the product from "1Passwd" to "1Password" a few years ago. That isn't to say that we want to make 1Password any less powerful of a tool, but we do use more caution when introducing new features that have high potential to cause problems... 1% of the user base is no longer a small number.

JeremyBechtold

I don't know how all these things get developed and implemented, so I can't comment well on what works from a technical side of things, but the suggestions above and the limitations of the larger crowd not being beta testers is well understood here. what I wonder is, like in the past when people could enable betas for osx updates (I think you still can?) whether we could enable extra "beta" features as free in-app purchases? those buying in would be fully-aware that they're dealing with a tab of beta options and preferences enabled because they've gone down that hole... it makes it no longer part of the built-in functionality, so it'd be tougher to "accidentally" misunderstand or misuse a feature. just like when pro features got added. couldn't beta features be added for those willing to try something in another environment? you could then have a set of preferences to disable one set of functions in favor of the other, no? again, just spit-balling implementation thoughts here as I don't know the ins-and-outs of ios dev.

also, I love the idea that on the username field or username page (for 2-pg logins) you could, with a single click each, grab the usernname and/or password (as usernames are often common or email addresses that could be helped along by ios' keyword shortcuts for text expansion) and then you have the password already in your clipboard for the next page/field (except in those cases I hate where they disable pasting in passwords too). hovering to copy or reveal keeps things secure, but having those be bigger buttons would be helpful even if the custom keyboard scenario failed for the various reasons mentioned above.

AGAlumB

@JeremyBechtold: I'm not sure that charging for beta features is the direction we want to go. Personally, I know others have done this from time to time, and for the most part (with a few exceptions!) this kind of rubs me the wrong way. (Un)fortunately(?) this isn't possible currently, but it's definitely something to think about! ;)

We really love the idea of a 1Password keyboard (similar to what our good friends at Smile Software have done with TextExpander), but unless we can find a way to do this without sacrificing security, it is a non-starter for 1Password. But who knows? WWDC is close at hand, so maybe Apple will surprise us all with something that could help in this regard. Cheers! :)