Windows v6 "Branding"
I humbly suggest that AgileBits gives some thought to "branding" of their Windows products.
Windows v4 and Windows v6 are two totally different products. They have different code bases, different feature sets, and different capabilities.
It's very easy for people to think that the Windows v6 release is "newer and better" than the Windows v4 release. Some day, that will be the case, but today, it is not. And I think that's leading to a lot of confusion for AgileBits customers. Heck, I myself made that mistake over the summer, and even then I was familiar with the differences.
Even the forums here show the branding problem. This is the Windows BETA forum (clearly for the Windows v6 product, I think?), but it's not clear from that even from the forum name.
I suggest:
In download pages, make it very clear that 1Password v4 is for Dropbox users, or for users that are NOT using the 1password.com service. Meanwhile, 1Password v6 is solely for users of the 1password.com service (it's certainly not useful today for anything else).
In the 1Password v6 installer, the installer, prior to installation, should pop up a dialog box explaining that 1Password v6 is intended solely for users of the 1password.com service, and that 1Password v4 should be used for all other cases. Have an abort button to stop the installation before it starts.
Here in the forums, make it clear that the BETA forum is for 1Password v6 users while the non-BETA forum is for 1Password v4 users. I assume that's the intent, although it's not clear given that the two products are completely different.
I understand that AgileBits will eventually have feature parity in 1Password v6 (with the existing 1Password v4 product). But feature parity does not exist today and, reading these forums, it's leading to a LOT of customer confusion. When the feature sets of the two products have more feature parity, these suggestion will become moot. But today, there's a lot of confusion.
Just a humble suggestion ...
1Password Version: Not Provided
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: Not Provided
Sync Type: Not Provided
Comments
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Hi @jeffc,
Thanks for taking the time to share your suggestion with us.
The Windows forums are for both versions, the Windows Beta forum is for the beta updates to both programs, we're just not offering betas anymore for 1Password 4, so there's not much traffic for it lately.
It doesn't help to have separate versioned forums, we had this before and it didn't reduce any confusion, people tend to pick the first Windows related forum and reply. So, we most likely will remain with the same forum structure for now. In fact, most people don't use the forum because it is a bit too much of a hassle to just ask a simple question, they email us instead and that's the largest share of our support volumes.
We have been getting some marketing-focused folks into our company recently and they'll help us with the branding issues.
We've also been overhauling our contact from to be smarter, so it is now like this: https://support.1password.com/contact/
In download pages, make it very clear that 1Password v4 is for Dropbox users, or for users that are NOT using the 1password.com service. Meanwhile, 1Password v6 is solely for users of the 1password.com service (it's certainly not useful today for anything else).
Except a lot of people don't use Dropbox with 1Password 4, many do not want to use any cloud sync as they tend to use WLAN sync or their own sync tool (ReilioSync, CloudStation, OwnCloud, etc), OneDrive and more. Saying 1Password 4 is for Dropbox users would incur the same type of confusion when they're looking for something that doesn't rely on cloud sync.
Instead, we do provide a link below the download button on 1Password.com for 1Password 4 saying: Get 1Password 4 (standalone version).
The download link on the older AgileBits.com domain is for standalone versions only. We most likely will clean up both domains to merge into a consistent experience over time.
In the 1Password v6 installer, the installer, prior to installation, should pop up a dialog box explaining that 1Password v6 is intended solely for users of the 1password.com service, and that 1Password v4 should be used for all other cases. Have an abort button to stop the installation before it starts.
The current basic Windows standard installer we're using doesn't have this type of flexibility, we were trying to provide guided tips but we were also trying to resolve the issues with .NET framework installation, we just got it right a few months ago and we rather not mess with it again. We need to build our own custom installer, not only to brand it but to offer suggestions throughout the setup, like turning on options while 1Password installs, and with your suggestion, explain the difference between 1Password.com and other sync if we can.
Right now, we have no plans to improve the current installer because the focus needs to go onto the custom installer. This is on our near-term list.
Again, thank you for your suggestion. We sometime do change our plans, so you do bring up a lot of great points.
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You are correct @jeffc , it was confusing and I assume it is impacting the uptake of their product. I **love ** their product, but it needs better communication for the stated reasons.
For example, go to https://1password.com/downloads/ and you get the Version 6 client.
Go to Google and type "1password download" and the first link is https://agilebits.com/downloads, which is the Version 4 client.
It could not be more confusion for the average users.
Now Version 6 only allows you to enter "Dropbox" vaults, but you can't edit them. Not intuitive.
I assume this is causing may people issues..........other than Mac Users which get the SAME version 6.5.3 on both pages.
It seems like you have two Product Managers - one working on the MAC and one working on the Windows. They should talk more...
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Hi @mmm1,
That's a great point. I'll file a request to see if our web team can add a notice to the old
https://agilebits.com/downloadspage about 1Password 6 for Windows and maybe update any rules we can use for the web search engines to use 1Password.com instead.It seems like you have two Product Managers - one working on the MAC and one working on the Windows. They should talk more...
We have one manager for all platform teams and all platform team leads do communicate with each other. However, Windows happens to be an exception because we intentionally built a new program on Windows to work with 1Password.com first and local vaults later. Eventually there will be one Windows app for both. The macOS team didn't need to build a new app, so they're ahead by us.
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That @MikeT is a major pain point with the Windows Client. I get the reasons why you are doing the v4 to v6 flow, and obviously revenue drives that point (i.e., moving to the cloud model vs. one-off price model). All obvious points for changing the direction. That said it is not fun using the Windows Client right now.......... :-/
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