1Password for Android New user feedback

dudeguy

Like many I am in a state of flux after LastPass decided to sell out to a company with a less-than-stellar track record. Now is a really good time to convert me to another solution. However, I decided not to buy 1P despite you guys sponsoring my favorite podcast.

The Windows version was pretty alright but I want a windows+android solution.

The good:

• I can open the app and copy passwords to clipboard
• Dropbox sync was mostly okay.

The bad:

• There's no intuitive way to fill passwords in websites or apps. At no point was it broadcasted "you need to go into your language options and enable our keyboard!"
• I enabled your keyboard, nav'd chrome to a website, tapped a login field, switched keyboards, tapped the little 1P icon, and then nothing happened. You could have put up a toast saying "I have no idea what site you are on but here, why not search through your library of passes." There is no feedback at all from the app.
• After typing in my username and clipboarding my password, it did not switch back to the original keyboard I was using automatically.
• KeePass is probably the campiest software I have ever used outside of enterprise homebrew and it's workflow is faster than 1P's.
• I have seen mentioned in various messageboards that the android and windows clipboards are basically a matter of public record to the other applications you have installed. You should seriously consider designing a workflow that doesn't involve it.

The ugly:

• The design was probably great 3 years ago
• I have read posts assuring me that this company is not "apple first" and has separate but equal teams for every platform. However, all of the help documents I read contained only OS-X instructions even though I was viewing them on an android device. Right now I am looking at a suggestion to add additional information and the suggested text is "OS X" and "iCloud." You ONLY support dropbox for sync instead of letting android handle it so I can use spideroak, bt sync, syncthing, or any other competing service. None of these things convey a "we care about all the platforms our users are on" message.
• Systemic lagging behind: Personally I work for a company that has totally embraced Agile development not just for software, but for everything it does. It makes it a lot easier to stay on top of new practices and always keep your stuff current when you use an agile-style release cycle. Have a look at Google Chrome for an example. Even though I know you are working hard on your next release, I am not confident that it will stay relevant for long afterwards due to the nature of your release cycle.

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1Password Version: whatever I downloaded 30 minutes ago
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: Not Provided
Sync Type: Not Provided

dudeguy

Well for some reason there's a timeout on editing, what a brilliant feature.

I read some other posts on this forum and it seems that other apps are supposed to write in 1Password integration? It's the year of our lord two thousand fifteen, why are you requiring something like that? Even FOSS solutions can detect that I am trying to log into com.twitter.android or whatever. I think there is something fundamentally wrong with your understanding of android.

tom223

I've also recently switched over and I'm included to agree. I'd rather they be honest about it and say "we're iOS/Mac first".

The iOS app gets updated with new iOS 9 features soon after launch and the Mac app looks great! Meanwhile the Android and Windows apps look seriously dated and are missing a few features. The blog post announcing material design and fingerprint support was back in May - it's now October!

Still, I've brought both apps as I feel like it's a good investment and I feel it's the best password management solution available. It just kinda sucks be thought as a second-class citizen. Maybe I should just buy a Mac and iPhone :p

peri

Hey there, @dudeguy.

Thanks for taking the time to try out 1Password. I'll be happy to address the points you brought up.

• I can open the app and copy passwords to clipboard
• Dropbox sync was mostly okay.

I'm glad to hear you like these features. I don't have any trouble with Dropbox sync, so I'm not sure what went wrong for you. If you noticed any particular problems or errors, let us know and we'll be happy to help sort them out.

• There's no intuitive way to fill passwords in websites or apps. At no point was it broadcasted "you need to go into your language options and enable our keyboard!"

This information can be found under Settings > Filling. There, you'll find a short description of our filling implementation, as well as a link to our user guide, where you can find more information.

In addition to this, you could tap the URL of any Login item in your vault, which will open the site in our built-in 1Browser, and automatically fill in your credentials. It's up to you to decide which filling implementation you prefer.

• I enabled your keyboard, nav'd chrome to a website, tapped a login field, switched keyboards, tapped the little 1P icon, and then nothing happened. You could have put up a toast saying "I have no idea what site you are on but here, why not search through your library of passes." There is no feedback at all from the app.

1Password will only automatically fill on apps and pages that have a URL matching a URL in your vault. This is to protect users from filling into bogus sites. If 1Password doesn't detect a matching login, long press (or press and hold) the grayed out 1Password button, and you'll be able to browse your list of Logins, in order to choose the correct one. You can find more about this here.

• After typing in my username and clipboarding my password, it did not switch back to the original keyboard I was using automatically.

1Password will not automatically switch your keyboard for you. Instead, just long press the spacebar in order to switch back to your preferred keyboard.

• KeePass is probably the campiest software I have ever used outside of enterprise homebrew and it's workflow is faster than 1P's.
• I have seen mentioned in various messageboards that the android and windows clipboards are basically a matter of public record to the other applications you have installed. You should seriously consider designing a workflow that doesn't involve it.

I can't speak to KeePass, but I agree that the workflow could be easier in 1Password 4 for Android. We're currently working on a number of changes which should improve the workflow. :) That said, a major part of the reason we decided to use the custom keyboard and accessibility service for filling was to avoid the need for using the clipboard. I absolutely agree that the clipboard is a vulnerable place and recommend against storing any sensitive information on it. Ultimately, it's up to users to decide if they're comfortable copying to the clipboard or not. It is definitely our goal to minimize that need.

• The design was probably great 3 years ago

We're currently working on a Material Design redesign of 1Password on Android, which we hope to release in the near future.

• I have read posts assuring me that this company is not "apple first" and has separate but equal teams for every platform. However, all of the help documents I read contained only OS-X instructions even though I was viewing them on an android device. Right now I am looking at a suggestion to add additional information and the suggested text is "OS X" and "iCloud." You ONLY support dropbox for sync instead of letting android handle it so I can use spideroak, bt sync, syncthing, or any other competing service. None of these things convey a "we care about all the platforms our users are on" message.

1Password was first released on Mac and iOS, and has had a lot more time to grow on those platforms. Our first fully functional Android app (1Password 4) was released just last June, and since then, we've made a number of major changes to the app, with a lot more planned.

We do have documentation for our Android app as well, and you can find that here.

Currently, 1Password 4 for Android has built-in support for three sync solutions; Dropbox, Wi-Fi, and local storage. We can't support alternative third-party solutions at the moment, but we have had several users sync with local storage, and then use another third party solution (like BTSync or SpidreOak), to sync with other devices. We don't officially support those sync solutions, but we're always willing to troubleshoot any issues that arise when using them.

• Systemic lagging behind: Personally I work for a company that has totally embraced Agile development not just for software, but for everything it does. It makes it a lot easier to stay on top of new practices and always keep your stuff current when you use an agile-style release cycle. Have a look at Google Chrome for an example. Even though I know you are working hard on your next release, I am not confident that it will stay relevant for long afterwards due to the nature of your release cycle.

We have teams dedicated to each platform, and our Android team stays on Android, so we're constantly moving forward. While I do agree that we have some catching up to do to gain feature parity with 1Password on other platforms, I'm super proud of all of the hard work that's gone into our Android app.

Well for some reason there's a timeout on editing, what a brilliant feature.

I'm not sure what you mean here. I've never encountered a timeout when editing an item (granted I haven't spent more than 5 or ten minutes editing), and I'm not aware of any built-in timeout timer.

That said, 1Password 4 for Android doesn't save drafts of items as they're edited, so if your device timed out due to idling while an item was in edit mode, the changes would not be saved.

We have had some users request the option to save drafts of items in progress, and I'll pass along your vote. :)
ref: OPA-444

I read some other posts on this forum and it seems that other apps are supposed to write in 1Password integration? It's the year of our lord two thousand fifteen, why are you requiring something like that? Even FOSS solutions can detect that I am trying to log into com.twitter.android or whatever. I think there is something fundamentally wrong with your understanding of android.

We don't require any apps to write in 1Password integration, so I'm not sure what you're referring to here. Our filling implementation does indeed detect app package URLs (such as com.twitter.android), so it's not necessary for Twitter to integrate 1Password.

Our stance is that we prefer people use any password manager, whether or not they use ours. It's up to you to decide what works best for you, of course. :) If you decide to try out 1Password again in the future, we'll be here to help with anything you might need!

@tom223 I'm glad to here that you're enjoying using 1Password. :lol: As someone with a bit of an inside scoop into AgileBits as well as our Android team (and an avid Android user to boot), I can say that our Android app is certainly not a "second-class citizen." I hope you'll stick around to enjoy some of the awesomeness we have coming. I'm super excited for it.