Support for fingerprint unlock [released]

AGAlumB

What would make a bunch of us happy right now would be to backport fingerprint support to the current shipping Android version. [...]
Here's an actionable suggestion - what if you ask those of us here on the Android forum if we'd accept a two week delay in the next major release in exchange for a near-term release-quality update with Marshmallow fingerprint support? I'd bet we would willingly do that. I certainly word. Are you open to exploring this option?

@zendnez: I'm really confused by what you're saying here. What's the 'backporting' you're referring to? I don't think adding fingerprint support for the current Android (M is for Marshmallow, 6.0, etc.) constitutes backporting. I'd appreciate if you could clarify this for me.

1Password is the most quality-critical app that I run. I can't use a beta. We're clearly several months away from a release version of whatever it is you guys are working on (which I hope is mind blowing).

I understand completely! But certainly you want someone to beta test it? Otherwise we're just releasing a beta in stable clothing. Or something. :lol:

Now, if we get the beta in people's hands and there are no issues, everyone will be happy, as we can simply release it to everyone almost immediately. That rarely happens though, so we prefer to plan for the worst and hope for the best...but several months really seems like a stretch. :pirate:

In the meantime, I would love to see you respond to the months of feedback here in which devoted users who love your product are feeling frustrated.

That's exactly what we're doing, both here on the forum and behind the scenes as we prepare the next update. It's coming! :sunglasses:

AGAlumB

I've been in the mobile world for 7 years and I'm located in your area, maybe we should talk about expanding your team a bit. ;) Lol.

@Eluder: By all means, shoot us an email with your info at hogwarts@agilebits.com — we're always looking for more amazing folks to work with. ;)

AGAlumB

You're making the big assumption that development for the next version actually started. By the looks of it, I think they are still looking to hire developers to start the work.

@411pass: In case you missed it, we've been working on this update for a while now. We're definitely not starting this week with hopes of that kind of turnaround. We could probably do it, but it would be lacking substance and/or stability. :lol:

zendnez

@brenty asked:

@zendnez: I'm really confused by what you're saying here. What's the 'backporting' you're referring to? I don't think adding fingerprint support for the current Android (M is for Marshmallow, 6.0, etc.) constitutes backporting. I'd appreciate if you could clarify this for me.

"Backporting is the action of taking parts from a newer version of a software system or software component and porting them to an older version of the same software. It forms part of the maintenance step in a software development process, and it is commonly used for fixing security issues in older versions of the software and also for providing new features to older versions." - Wikipedia

What I'm proposing is that you take the work you've done on fingerprint support in the upcoming 5.0/6.0/whatever release of 1Password for Android, and you port it back to the current 4.0. It really can't be more than a couple of days of work to do this and while the feature might differ a bit, most of the code will be re-usable. Then ship this as an update to 4.0 to keep the mob happy while you finish up 5.0/6.0/whatever over the next 2 or 3 months.

Whaddya think? :)

AGAlumB

I disagree. A faster release cycle keeps most users happy and motivated, specially those who love the application and your company, no matter what's in the release.

@juanii: Exactly. That was my point, though I clearly failed in my attempt to make it! I expect people to disagree, because we all have different preferences. I've received emails from Windows users complaining that releases are too frequent. To each their own! Peri said it best:

We do understand that we have room for improvement in a number of areas, and we're planning on making some changes which I think will make more of the people happy more of the time. :)

I should let her do the talking next time. :p

But almost everyone here is asking for the same thing. Delivering a smaller release with a couple of highly requested features would make most people happy.

I think that that the issue here is the assumption that material design and/or fingerprint support could be a small release. People are asking for a small release with some pretty big features that do take some serious work. If you're thinking of a 'big release' in terms of lines in a changelog, that's one way of looking at it; but another is a 'big release' in terms of the significance of the features themselves (i.e. UI redesign, support for new hardware/software, etc.)

You have one huge advantage: 1P customers aren't just users, they love your product and stand for it. You can please them with very little. IMHO the error was to bundle some features I imagine took longer to develop but few people asked with (relatively) easier ones everyone was expecting in one big update. So cheers for the move to faster releases.

You're absolutely right. We're incredibly fortunate to have such awesome customers, who care about what we do. More frequent updates and better communication are the other 'big things' we're working on (apart from the update itself), and I think they actually go hand in hand: when we don't have anything ready to release yet (or that we can even talk about), well...there just isn't much to say. So I think working on smaller, faster releases could also allow us to talk about it more as well.

My understanding is that Agile Bits is going to support the Android 6.0 fingerprint API, which may leave older Samsung devices that are not running Android 6.0 unsupported. Someone I'm sure will jump in and correct me if that's not the case.

Yes, 1Password for Android will support the fingerprint API introduced in 6.0. It's up to the manufacturer whether or not the current OS is supported.

I'm well aware of that, and that's the point I was making. Even if I can't take any advantage from a new feature, I like to see the app is getting better. Maybe next time there will be something that benefits me. Eventually I can buy a new phone to use the new features. But I think seeing steady and regular progress makes all the difference.

This is a really good point, and I appreciate you making it so I don't have to try to! :lol:

But in all seriousness, progress is important. Sometimes it can feel pretty terrible on both sides, whether you're on the team that has to decide what gets cut, or a user who has to watch while everyone else gets the toys. And while not everyone will be as zen about it, the fact that things are moving forward (even as it passes you by) can be of some comfort. And as you suggest, it can also be aspirational: a great excuse to buy yourself a new device now and then! ;)

This is something we will meditate on going forward. :blush:

AGAlumB

"Backporting is the action of taking parts from a newer version of a software system or software component and porting them to an older version of the same software. It forms part of the maintenance step in a software development process, and it is commonly used for fixing security issues in older versions of the software and also for providing new features to older versions." - Wikipedia

@zendnez: lol thank you! I am familiar with the concept of backporting. For some reason I thought you were referring to an older version of Android, not 1Password. I appreciate you clearing that up for me. :lol:

What I'm proposing is that you take the work you've done on fingerprint support in the upcoming 5.0/6.0/whatever release of 1Password for Android, and you port it back to the current 4.0. It really can't be more than a couple of days of work to do this and while the feature might differ a bit, most of the code will be re-usable. Then ship this as an update to 4.0 to keep the mob happy while you finish up 5.0/6.0/whatever over the next 2 or 3 months. Whaddya think? :)

Ahh. I'm thinking....no. But don't freak out! We've done like 9X% of the work. We're just finishing things up to prepare for public beta. It really isn't as far off as you think it is, and any time spent backporting (and testing said backport) will be resources taken away from the true Quest for the Holy Grail. I know it's not what you want to hear, but you'll just have to trust me on this one. :silenced:

dayvan

I absolutely love 1Password, even in its current form. No other app so elegantly implemented WiFi-sync and OTP support - in fact, many popular apps feature neither! I wouldn't stop using it for the world.

While I don't share most of the frustration that's been raging around here, I can understand some of it. I don't really care that competitors already support fingerprint unlock and the likes. We know it's coming to 1Password, and once it has arrived, it won't go away. Something that one release won't magically bring though is feature parity with iOS. As a longtime 1Password user, I genuinely hope this will be achieved someday.

It's like this : I don't care if other kids have better toys than me, but if my sister gets a super cool mini drone and all I get is one bag of marbles... Wait! What kind of parents would be this cruel anyway? :lol: (and yes, I guess in this amazing analogy, @brenty, @peri and @saad would have to be unlucky baby sitters or even brutalized toys in a Toy Story 3 kind of way, but I digress).

Anyway, I can't wait for this release, and all other releases too come quickly thereafter! ;) Many thanks in advance to the team!

Cheers everyone

juanii

I've received emails from Windows users complaining that releases are too frequent.

@brenty That's funny. Probably Windows users are tired of countless daily OS updates they don't even want to see their apps updated (joke). Seriously, I checked the Windows changelog and yes, there are some update bursts (october 2014, may & july 2015) which could make someone a bit angry, but given it was a 'new' product catching up with the rest I'd be glad to see that changelog...

I think that that the issue here is the assumption that material design and/or fingerprint support could be a small release. [...]

Don't get me wrong, I know how hard is to build for Android and how sensitive and complex security software is. I'm a software developer, I write both code and release notes, and sometimes I feel it's unfair a thousand lines in code translates to a single "Fix" line in the release notes. Understandably, most people measure updates in release-notes-length units. With "smaller release" I meant less new features. I'm not implying fingerprint support is easy, but it's not dependent on material design or Teams, so the release could have been smaller in this regard. The few highly requested features could have been delivered separately from the other, quicker than all of them together. That was my point.

More frequent updates and better communication are the other 'big things' we're working on (apart from the update itself), and I think they actually go hand in hand: when we don't have anything ready to release yet [...] there just isn't much to say.

Couldn't agree more. That's why IMHO the long release cycle is the one to blame. I see you've learnt from all this fuss and now you're moving to a faster release cycle, so cheers for that.

Regards

saad

That’s a good way to put it. We appreciate the support @dayvan. :)

saad

Hello, everyone! We are very excited to announce the first public beta of 1Password 6 is now available to download. For those of you who like to install the new beta, please have a read through our forum post announcement over at Android Beta.

We look forward to hearing your feedback. Thanks again for your support. :)

Xaelias

Yeah it works! Now I can be a dick about something else, like the lack of great auto-filling like dashlane does or something (half-joking).

Thanks guys.

411pass

So what happened to the "5 weeks to beta"? You just grabbed a nightly build and called it beta just to quiet the forums?

saad

@juanii We know exactly the feeling.. We put a lot into this beta release and our release notes only tell part of the story.

Our plan is to move to a faster beta release cycle going forward! :) We look forward to hearing your feedback on the beta! Thanks.

saad

@Xaelias Glad to hear Fingerprint Unlock works. We plan to improve the filling feature in upcoming beta releases.

saad

@411pass When we originally posted the timeline few weeks back, we gave ourselves some room in case something didn’t work as expected. During the development process, we sometimes face barriers that delay completing an implementation.

We are really happy that we are able to deliver this beta before the “5 weeks” and we hope you get a chance to try it yourself to see how much work is behind this. :)

Xaelias

@saad I'm not going to create a new topic in the beta forum, because I'm sure you already know what I'm going to say. But using your keyboard is like the last thing I want to do. It's a pain to switch keyboard. It's a pain to switch back. Whatever time you put in it, I'm pretty sure you'll never have a keyboard has good has other teams that are dedicated to it (swiftkey and the likes)... I should just be able to do something similar to what you can do on iOS, or just having an overlay like dashlane does (there are probably other possibilities).
I've read that you chose the keyboard road because you did not want to trust the clipboard, issue is, if not most, a lot of us just copy and paste the passwords anyway so...
Anyway, I'll be keeping an eye on the betas ^^

juanii

Great to hear that the new beta is available. I'll try it right away.

We look forward to hearing your feedback on the beta! Thanks.

@saad I don't think I'll have any valuable feedback this time, I ain't a Teams user and I don't own a fingerprint capable phone, anyway I'm glad the new beta is out. I'll wait until the next release (hopefully with multiple local vaults) to contribute.

Regards

hubpf

I only see 1Password 5.0 Beta 1. No 1Password 6.

Xaelias

@hubpf because android was 4.x, so next version is 5.

hubpf

@Xaelias I'm using S6 with Android 5.

juanii

@Xaelias Maybe @hubpf is a little confused because the release post mentions "1Password 6" everywhere :p

Edit: Oh, @saad also mentioned the new "1Password 6" in his post. I hope that's not a mistake and the next incarnation featuring OPVault and multiple vaults support is around the corner :)

bdbplatano

I'm really happy to see this beta, and will gladly report any bugs I see. So far.. none :D

I do have one question though. Universal Search. I can't imagine it would be that hard to implement search into the top bar. It's already there, just hidden under a few taps unfortunately. Other than that the update looks really good!!!

hubpf

@juanii You are right... :)

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amcelwee

@saad @peri @brenty looking good so far. This is a good step in the right direction, so hopefully we see continued momentum on the platform.

EnerJi

@sameerchavan They've said a few times they are using the Android 6 fingerprint API, so you'll need to be running Android 6 to get fingerprint unlock. What kind of phone are you using?

Xaelias

Yeah I think some of you are confusing your android version and 1password version.

AGAlumB

@Xaelias: I'll have to come back here after I get some sleep to take in all the feedback, but I think this confusion is at least partially our fault. It looks like we've got some material showing version 5 and others are version 6. Sorry about that! :blush:

To be clear, it's going to be 1Password for Android 6.0, which lines up nicely with both Android M(arshmallow) and (most of) our other platforms. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. ;)

411pass

This is another area where you could be doing a much better job: versioning. For those of us who use all the platforms the versioning is very confusing, it ranges from 4 to 6. Why can't you just be consistent, in terms of look and feel and version numbers?

Xaelias

@411pass Because these are different teams, and they won't just change the version number to stick to the other apps progress. Obviously the android app was far behind the iOS one, and should NOT have the same version number. It was lacking most of the funcitonnalities...