Passkeys are useless w/ 1Password [CONTINUED]

Passkeys are still mostly useless on MacOS.  Can 1password just bite the bullet already and implement native password manager support on MacOS?  Although I love the autofill shortcut (shift+comand+space) and it truly is the best UX I've used on a password manager, that alone isn't enough to make me cough up 1password subscription fees for eternity when it remains fundamentally broken on the OS I'm using all day.

I have a feeling the discussions have gone like this:

• Should we implement native password manager support on MacOS?  It's yet another platform to support.  How many points?
• [Estimates]
• Hmm, well we've got X that needs to get done this quarter.  Next quarter is Y.  And we've been putting off Z forever and senior engineers are going to start quitting if we don't fix THAT!  Can users live without it?
• Well, sure.  They've got the browser plugins...
• Great!  Let's just table this for now and revisit it when we've got more capacity.

Totally understandable!  We've all been there.  The problem is this really sucks for a few reasons.  Here they are:

• (MAJOR) Passkeys: Unfortunately on MacOS the browser extensions seem to be the ONLY way to use Passkeys.  That is problematic for a few reasons.  The biggest issue is that browsers are NOT the only place you might need to auth on a computer.  Sure it's 80% or more.  But even if it were 99%, the software is not called .99password, it's 1password.  I've already run into situations with native apps where I'm being prompted for a passkey.  Your current solution will never work here.
  • You might be thinking:  "WHAT!  Native apps using passkeys?!  That is so rare and uncommon!  We cannot expend engineering effort on a mere 1% of use cases!"  Sure, maybe now.  But it's happened to me multiple times and passkeys are pretty new.  I can't imagine they're going away after all the effort to roll them out.  It's only a matter of time.
  • And for people who don't use the browser extensions, they are experiencing this pain every single time they are prompted for a passkey
• (GRIPE: Browser extensions) You're almost a victim of your own success (almost).  The autofill shortcut works so well I have absolutely no desire to install the much less functional browser extensions.  I use several browsers (I'm an engineer) and they honestly are pretty mediocre in how well they work and they're frustrating to use.  I should need to log into 1password ONE time.  Not 1 + N, where N is the number of browsers.  They're constantly prompting me for my password, they need to be kept up to date, and frankly the UX just isn't great.  I'm sure for various reasons (like non MacOS operating systems) you need to keep them working, but on MacOS they just aren't the best way to use 1password (nor are they a differentiator - every password manager, free or paid, has these, so I'm certainly not losing anything wrt these by switching away from 1password).
  • In case you want to interpret this to mean "make browser extensions better", that is NOT what I'm saying.  I'm not going to use them.  It's simply more unnecessary complexity, more to keep in sync wrt updates, more surface area for attack, etc.  Not happening.

Wow.  1password doesn't really support the major authentication initiative that everyone is switching to?  Sounds dire!  Luckily there is a solution!  Unfortunately for 1password, all a user needs to do is stop using 1password. The solution is simple: use the built-in free password manager Apple rolled out recently (alongside the API to actually support passkeys properly, in fact).  That works great! 

I've simply been saving all my passkeys there.  I did have it turned off for a while and was using 1password exclusively.  But due to 1password's lack of compatibility with passkeys, it's turned back on.  Now whenever it asks to save any of my credentials, I say yes.  Eventually, I'm sure it will have pretty much everything.  And once it has everything, does it really make sense to keep paying for 1password?

Just implement the dang API already.  Get it on the roadmap.  A decent engineer could have that production ready in a month if you just said "go" and got out of their way for a while (tell them they don't have to attend any planning meetings if they can meet the deadline, you'll have people fighting to take it).

Sent with ❤️.  I never knew a password manager could be so great.  If I didn't care and want you to be successful, I wouldn't waste spend my time on this.