AutoFill gives password manager apps a boost on your iPhone

After years of constant absorption of features such as the suggestion of strong passwords and the memorization of those you own, iOS 12 now gives back to developers of password managers. The new automatic entry allows your third-party password manager to listen in more places and much more easily. AppleInsider unlocks what you do and the unexpected boundaries.

Previously, you could not convince people that they needed a password manager, because until you've seen one in action, you do not understand it. More recently, however, all iOS users have actually seen this feature in action – built directly into Safari. Now the problem is to show users that full password management applications are better and that iOS 12 has just removed a barrier.

Apple's latest iPhone and iPad operating system includes an automatic entry setting that, if you choose to accept it, will allow your password manager to be selected anywhere.

That's the theory and again if you have not seen them in action, you wonder what the meaning is. As long as you have all your passwords safely in a manager, you can always refer to them. You can always go first to a website or click on a shopping cart icon, then go to your password manager to copy the user name, password, security codes or anything else .

Maybe you would actually use the application switch to access it: leave an application completely and go instead to your password manager. Or, a little better, you can stay in the first application and call the Share button. Password manager applications have lived here because sharing extensions existed at the beginning and now, with one click, you can retrieve the relevant information from there.

Sharing is a bad title when what you are doing is getting information from another application instead of sending it information. We can not think of a better title but it is always an obstacle: unless you know it, you will not think of clicking on Share when you want to obtain information.

Nevertheless, this operation, or even the change of application, as tedious as it may seem, is still much faster than the manual entry of your password or your credit card number.

In addition, the three main password manager applications (1Password, LastPass and Dashlane) have all reduced the steps to follow. Probably the most successful in this line has been 1Password whose developers have worked with the creators of many other apps. It is now quite common to go through the process of connecting an application and being offered a 1Password button.

Now, iOS 12 has actually made this feature available to all password managers, making the process much clearer.

How it works

It does not work with every website. Sites and developers will need time to work in AutoFill, but this is already happening on major sites.

Try it with one of yours. Go to a website you need to sign in to. Tap on the User Name field and as soon as you do it, it can be filled in automatically, Safari will suggest you to fill in the password. Once you have configured this, this offer does not come from Apple's iCloud Keychain system, but from LastPass, 1Password or Dashlane.

You are prompted to log in to the site using password manager details. Specifically, and more specifically, the most important detail is the user name of the site for which your manager has details. Then there is a note saying that it comes, for example, from Dashlane. When you tap the user name of the website, your password manager takes over.

While you are staying in Safari and on the website you are connecting to, you get the password manager request for a security code, TouchID or FaceID. Enter this and the details of the password you want are extracted from the application and placed in the right place on the site.

You will not want to go back

It's a feature you'll be talking to people when they ask what's so good with iOS 12.

This automatic entry, however, requires configuration.

On your iOS device, go to Settings and scroll down to Passwords and accounts.
Now press Automatic filling of passwords, turn on the AutoFill switch.

You may have a small choice here. One of the options in the list of applications you say is allowed to use AutoFill for you: iCloud Keychain. It is selected by default and you should leave it. What is in the list depends on whether a password manager is installed.

If you have not done so yet, go get one. Whatever your choice – 1Password, LastPass or Dashlane – is much better than remembering passwords or writing them down in a book.

You might find that you do not like one and you decide to move on to another. It's much more than that, but if you already have two password managers on your iOS device at the same time, you have to think about it.

Password managers are only secure databases, information lists by buttons, they do not execute code that can interfere with each other. Yet Apple has defined a limitation: only one password manager at a time can be approved with AutoFill.

You can always come back later and move on, but it would have been helpful to see how everyone handles AutoFill side by side.

Not practical

If you could do it, however, you probably could not have the simple choice of an AutoFill button when you are prompted to enter a password.

This single button very clearly indicates that if you tap on it, you will log in to that account with that username. Apple does not really hide any other information, but by highlighting this user name, one has the impression that LastPass and the others have a back seat.

So, it may not be Apple that is generous, giving this automatic entry feature to developers of password management applications. Maybe it's just Apple that keeps us in Safari. After all, if you ignore the button and leave the login site, when you return, the option will not be offered before the site closes and returns.

Whatever the motivation of Apple, AutoFill is a real bargain. It's also a delight: the first time you see it, you think so, it's exactly what it should do.

LastPass is free to download. It has a limited free version and also costs $ 2 a month.

1Password has a 30-day free trial and, subsequently, a subscription service costs $ 2.99 per month.

Dashlane is also free to try. As long as you upgrade to the Premium version, you are limited to using it on a single device and up to 50 usernames / passwords. The premium costs $ 60 a year.

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