Is the 1Password 8 Mac electron app experiment about over so the dev team can get back to building a quality native app for the Mac? The other option is staying on 1Password 7 till I move my family account and three companies I consult with to another platform. I loved 1Password 7, 6, etc., but this version 8 is a mess. (Granted, it's better than most electron apps, but that is not a high bar) 1Password Version: Not Provided Extension Version: Not Provided OS Version: Not Provided

Hi jdwusami, 1Password 8 for Mac is still in development, but it will be, as planned, a hybrid app: the back-end core, where most of the computational work goes on, is written in Rust, and the front-end is Typescript and React bundled with Electron. This design has been chosen for a number of reasons - including security, performance, and user experience consistency - that have been discussed in a number of blog posts, as well as here in the forums. In short, if you feel that Electron is an absolute deal-breaker, and that you cannot under any circumstances make use of an app that includes it, then you can certainly stay on 1Password 7, although as an older SKU this will not receive the same kind of feature updates that 1Password 8 will. It's clear that you're passionate about 1Password, and we appreciate that. With that said, we feel that 1Password 8 is a very strong offering, and improves on its predecessor in a number of key ways. We are also dedicated to making it more robust, featureful, and performant on an ongoing basis too - so the Stable release of 1Password 8 for Mac, when it comes, won't be the end of the story - just as 1Password 7.9.828 is a substantially better product than earlier versions of 1Password 7. this version 8 is a mess. (Granted, it's better than most electron apps, but that is not a high bar) If you'd like to share any aspects of the app that you think aren't up to par, I'm happy to listen, and to pass the feedback on to our development team as well.

I read the blog post, but it’s still a massive mistake to a great native Mac app. It would be best if you listened to your customers on this as everyone is pushing back against this mistake for a reason. Granted, I agree with this author that the blog post is an indictment of SwiftUI. "Apple shares the blame, though. If today’s SwiftUI was truly the One True Tool to unify Apple’s platforms that it’s meant to be in the future, the Mac version of 1Password would be presented in SwiftUI. And perhaps in a year or two, that will happen—after all, the SwiftUI version of 1Password is right over there on iOS, ready to make the move when it’s feasible." When feedback to an announcement is as follows, the developer needs to reconsider the misstep. I still hope for a SwiftUI Mac app as I won't migrate to yet another horrible electron app as I have to deal with when using Microsoft Teams. https://appleinsider.com/articles/21/08/16/users-lobby-1password-to-abandon-new-electron-version

Hi jdwusami, thanks once again for the feedback. I respect the fact that you think going with Electron is a mistake - but again, there were a number of engineering and design reasons behind this decision, so our focus here has been what's going to provide the best experience for the customer, as it has been from the beginning. If possible, we'd love to hear about what specific concerns you have. Does it have to do with the UI? Or how certain workflows in the app? How security measures are implemented? These are all things we are constantly working to improve and perfect. What I'm trying to say is: not all apps that make some use of Electron are the same, and the fact that 1Password 8 uses it doesn't make it equivalent to other apps that provide a sub-par experience (not singling anyone out in particular here). Rather, we're dedicated to making an app experience par excellence, and so far we've found that the best way to do it is with a combination of languages I mentioned in the post above, which includes (yes) Electron as part of the overall product. In case you're curious, here are a few resources around this topic: Our electron hardener, which we have provided for free to the community so that other developers can use it as well: https://github.com/1password/electron-hardener Mitchell Cohen, product lead at 1Password, discusses Electron app hardening at Northsec conference: https://nsec.io/session/2021-how-to-harden-your-electron-app.html Users on Reddit have noted that 1Password's performance is: really good! https://www.reddit.com/r/1Password/comments/o0f3r9/introducing_1password_8_for_windows_early_access/h1vjtr6/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3 And it's hard to say it better than Roustem did here: https://1password.community/discussion/comment/608477/#Comment_608477 "We are trying to build the best experience possible with the tools we have today. 1Password desktop app was rewritten from scratch several times and if there is a better technology with clear advantages available tomorrow, we will be there to adopt it. We argue the differences between AppKit, SwiftUI, Catalyst, Electron, Tauri, etc but it is also a very low-level discussion in many ways. It is very important for us to make 1Password better as a product: add features that were on the back-burner for years, make it easier to new users, make it more powerful for advanced users, support both individual/family and business customers, try to not break existing workflows that people had for years and at the same time also create new better ones." And in truth, this has already begun to happen. We've been able to roll out a number of new features in just the last few months thanks to the streamlining of processes that the current approach makes possible. The apps will benefit across the board as a result. 👍

jdwusami Best to move on at this point (or stick with 1P7 for as long as possible). Electron isn't going anywhere, despite the massive user complaints. AgileBits has made their decision, and no amount of legitimate complaints and suggestions will change their mind. I've said it multiple times before, but watching what has happened to a company as beloved as AgileBits over the past many months is truly heartbreaking.

PeterG_1P That reddit thread you link to is about the Windows app, which is hardly indicative of the state of the Mac app. To put it nicely, the Windows version of 1Password 7 was not great, so even an Electron app will be better than what was there. On the Mac, however, 1P7 was (and still is) an absolutely beautifully designed application. And despite the strides that have been made with 1P8 for the Mac over the course of this beta period, it simply cannot hold a candle to 1P7 - and it will never be able to as long as it is an Electron app.

1Password 8 Mac Electron App Experiment

Former Member
4 years ago
DitchComfort id check out either Enpass or Minimalist Password Manager, both are good (but not quite great alternatives). That, or you could go all in with iCloud Keychain, especially now that it supports TOTP codes.
dtoub
Contributor
4 years ago
Totally agree with all the above. I’ve complained about many of the same things re: (not so) Quick Access. My biggest gripes are:
* I now click the icon and get a dropdown for Quick Access and Open 1PW. This is stupid; if I wanted to open the app, I’d click on 1PW in the Dock (or simply type 1PW in Alfred).
* Too many keyboard shortcuts to memorize, and why should I have to do this to copy a password?
* Once I’ve found the item I need, I now have to either click to get to the point of being able to copy a password, or else invoke three keys as a keyboard shortcut to do this.
* As I have mentioned in another thread, the new search functionality in Quick Access is terrible and is different from that of the browser extension (which uses the previous, correct, search methodology).

I’ve been a longtime user of 1PW like many folks here, and want to keep using it. I got past my revulsion of subscription models and have been a subscriber for a few years now. I get that 1PW 7, while still in use for some time, is eventually going to be deprecated (certainly it will get fewer updates than 1PW 8 as one of the devs mentioned in another thread). So I want 1PW 8 to be better. While it has evolved from the earlier versions of the beta, it still has a ways to go. Regressions and making things more complicated is not a good approach. I actually hate it when I have to unlock 1PW now, since it rarely defaults to TouchID on my Mac, and I also hate having to invoke Quick Access for all the reasons I mentioned above. It’s all fixable, but it would be nice to fix it already.

And as mentioned in another thread, I still don’t have my set category sticking after reopening 1PW…
Ivan_K
Occasional Contributor
4 years ago
Another +1 to viswiz and @tomjepp mentioned issues.

I am a 1Password user since 2014 (v4). In fact I bought my first iOS device (iPad) knowing that 1P is running great there and loved it already on my Mac.

Do I miss any functionality in v7? Nope. Nothing.

It has all the collaboration features I ever need from this application, it runs great on the shiny M1 machine with macOS 12.1 on it.

The only thing I miss from the v6 days is light color on the left sidebar with categories. I hoped that dev team just change the behaviour so that 1P v7 has light/dark UI just as macOS supports for some time now or at least provides an option to change it, but that just did not happen.

Overall though - for sure I am much more happy with v7 at the moment as with v8. It still feels much less intuitive and polished in actual use, requiring more interaction and keyboard shortcuts. Have not used keyboard shortcuts with 1P at all, so this all feels like pushing me into a strange territory.

Moreover, being IT admin for years, I see that generally, the less tech savvy person is - the less he/she uses keyboard shortcuts. No doubt that this whole "shortcuts" push will be much less preferred way of interacting with the app as it is possible with v7.

1Password is one of the very few apps that I am completely fine with paying subscription for and I am really glad to support it's development in this way. Even though my main vault is still "standalone" one resting on iCloud (with all different attachments, that just started to gain similar support in 1P vaults) - I will be also fine fully moving to 1P vaults due to years of experience with the application and full trust on the devs.

Pushing a subpar experience with v8 however is not something I am looking for at all. I am using Macs since 2013 and enjoy the extra polish of the apps written for this platform. I really don't care what happens in the Windows world since, well... Microsoft does not seem to care much about Windows at all (never-mind polishing user experience) - all releases I have tested and administered after Windows 8 was released feel like beta software. Unlike Apple who is always pushing for maximum polish. Seriously apps in Big Sur / Monterey just pleasure to use in many ways because of the great attention to detail and one design language.

I really feel like Mac community who is for sure the most loyal 1Password users and customers really deserve to get as polished experience as ever and if for one reason or another v8 is not able to provide it, than it only makes sense to allocate appropriate resources to continue polishing v7. Clearly 1P is a financial success so from the long term user side of things - I see no real "excuses" not too.

I hope AgileBits crew sticks to it's roots and continue to provide the best password manager out there, not allowing for some serious compromises.

1Password 7 functionality wise is already amazing. There is no point in rushing and pushing "changes for the sake of changes". I doubt that today most users utilise even half of the functionality v7 already provides.

1P does not need chat functionality, project management features, integrated audio player or video editor. Today, with even external item sharing that was added in v7.9 - 1Password is literally "can do it all" application that it should be.

I am even surprised that AgileBits team even considers to "drop" such amazing native macOS application / experience that 1Password 7 is today in favour of compromised solution that clearly cannot be a homerun as things stand now, since the core tools are still missing the important bits that native Apple development tools provide for it's own platform.

I wish all of us 1Password 7 users will be able to hold to the native experience for years to come and that if at the end of the day AgileBits teams decides to pull it - the shift will happen only when v8 (or other version) will compromise nothing.

v7 is literally a historical achievement in app development with a long history and trackable evolution path. It is a native citizen in the Apple world. It does not deserve to end up in the bin.
Jack_P_1P
1Password Team
4 years ago
Hi folks:

Thanks for your feedback here.

dtoub:

I now click the icon and get a dropdown for Quick Access and Open 1PW. This is stupid; if I wanted to open the app, I’d click on 1PW in the Dock (or simply type 1PW in Alfred).

I can definitely see how this would be frustrating, so I've added your feedback to an issue around this.
ref: dev/core/core#10768

Too many keyboard shortcuts to memorize, and why should I have to do this to copy a password?

Clicking the menu icon on a row result will take you to the page to take actions on an item. Would you mind elaborating on how you'd prefer to copy a password from Quick Access?

As I have mentioned in another thread, the new search functionality in Quick Access is terrible and is different from that of the browser extension (which uses the previous, correct, search methodology).

As mentioned elsewhere, we're still fine tuning the way search works to both behave as expected and give you the results you expect, while also working across multiple languages.

Ivan_K:

As Peter mentioned above, our goal is always to make the best experience we can, regardless of the engineering or or design decisions behind it. We're happy to discuss and converse about specific concerns you may have.

Jack
dtoub
Contributor
4 years ago
Thanks for the response. To answer your question: if i select an item below the search box, rather than just Open & Fill, it would be nice to have Copy Password (or make this option user-configurable as to what to have here). I'm usually already in an app or on a web site and want to copy the password (if autofill is just not recognizing the site URL, which does sometimes happen based on certain sites and isn't really 1PW's fault).
temtexdent
New Contributor
4 years ago
Using 8 since it launched. My biggest frustration is just inconsistency. I never am quite sure what sort of thing will work for a specific website. Sometimes it wants a keyboard shortcut. Sometime it seems to work fine. I am not a programmer and don't know if this has anything to do with Electron, but things just do not seem nearly as seamless as they were in the past.
dtoub
Contributor
4 years ago
Working on my wife’s iMac that has 1PW 7, it was so clear how much better 1PW mini still is over the new menu bar quick access for 1PW. Everything one would need pretty much is right there. Not at all true of the new version. Sad.
Former Member
4 years ago
I'm also planning on keeping v7 around for as much as possible due to Electron. Apart from the bloat, there are many little things that just don't integrate nicely in macOS. For instance, unless it changed recently, every Electron app keeps its caches in non-standard places, not even bothering to exclude them from Time Machine, thus wasting time and space during every hourly backup...
Former Member
4 years ago
I've just updated to 1pw 8 beta and I also want to chime in on this discussion, as it has been a disappointing experience from the first moments of using it :/

performance overall is just poor (13" macbook pro 2020, i7, 16gb ram; not a slow machine)

scrolling feels sluggish

icons take 10+ seconds to load when scrolling

switching between items is immediate but the icon has ~3 seconds delay on being updated on the detail view

resizing the window feels bad, it's just laggy and the ui always struggles to catch up with the window size

clicking on the preview button on any document takes a couple seconds to open the preview

and many other overall interactions that just don't feel snappy

the menubar item is just useless, I miss 1pw mini

quick access is also useless, I already use the alfred integration; again, I miss 1pw mini

for some reason it keeps unlocking only one vault when opening 1pw, and it's the one I use the least

the search is annoying, why doesn't it filter the current items instead of popping yet another surface with them like on 1pw 7?

the sidebar is also useless, I don't use tags and I always search for stuff on all vaults; but I do use categories :(

the watchtower view also seems pointless? it was more comfortable to access it on the sidebar :/

and for some reason the web view of the watchtower isn't centered, and personally I find the overview "progress bar" comically large and silly; although those are small things

these are the main points I'm struggling with, although I fully agree with the other points mentioned earlier. for now I've downgraded back to 1pw 7

dunno... it's just sad that an app that I have to use daily, and that I really enjoyed using; it's suddenly more annoying to use. it just feels a step back from what I already have with 1password 7, and I'm afraid of the day when I won't have a choice but to use 1pw 8

I'm not going to just jump on the "electron bad" wagon, right now this app has less features than 1pw 7 and some of the ux decisions taken on this new version makes the usage more cumbersome and slower than before and this affects me directly, be it an electron app or not
Jack_P_1P
1Password Team
4 years ago
Hi @aexvir:

Thanks for your feedback on this. We're always striving to improve the performance of 1Password.

Dave has spoken just earlier today on the topic of the sidebar here, and we're going to continue to iterate to see if we can find a way to make everyone happy, but for the moment at least, we'll be sticking with the current design of vaults and tags in the sidebar, and categories in the dropdown.

Alfred integration is something we're still exploring, but I don't have specifics for you just yet.

Search is another area we're actively working on taking a look at. The changes to search were made to improve search behavior for international languages.

for some reason it keeps unlocking only one vault when opening 1pw, and it's the one I use the least

The short version is that 1Password 7 would unlock all 1Password accounts with the password of the first 1Password account (or Primary standalone vault) that was added to the 1Password app. 1Password 8 now however will only unlock accounts that share the same account password. We recommend using the same account password across any 1Password accounts you may have. If using multiple account passwords is necessary, after each account has been unlocked using its specific account password, using Touch ID or your Apple Watch to unlock will unlock all accounts.

Jack