In this post, I’m going to show you my top 5 features from the upcoming 1Password 8 launch, which is currently in Beta. I’ll also share 3 things that I really wish they would change.
1Password 8 has been in Beta since August last year and I’ve been using the daily build of it ever since. And there’s some cool stuff to talk about.
# 5 - Security
One of the worst things that can happen when storing all of your passwords in one place, is that they can get compromised. 1Password now works with the Yubikeys, which are like keys for your house, nobody can get into your account without one.
Secondly, 1password helps you be more secure with features like generating unique answers to security questions. Rather than say, using the same mother's maiden name first pet's name, or childhood nickname that someone could probably find out without too much of a hassle - you can now randomly generate these answers using 1Password. This will undoubtedly make those accounts so much more secure by reducing the chances of someone guessing those answers.
# 4 - SHARING
This new feature allows you to share a single password with a friend or family member, without giving them a full account or sharing a whole folder full of passwords.
You can share something and only allow someone to see it once before it’s gone. You can set time limits from a day up to 30 days, which can be great when maybe working on a project together with someone.
As an example, if you wanted to share the username and password to a friend of yours for a one-time opportunity on something like, maybe, uh, I dunno. subscribing to their youtube channel - you could!
Speaking of sharing - I also use the 1Password Family features often, because if you’re old like me, then you need to start thinking about looking after your wife and kids, and so rather than having all sorts of complicated policies that my wife would have no clue about finding in the event of me being hit by a bus, then all of that can be shared in a folder that only me and she have access to.
# 3 - RELIABILITY
My favourite thing about 1Password 8, is reliability across all devices. Recently I’ve been switching phones a lot. I’ve got the Pixel 6 Pro, the S21 FE, and the iPhone 13, but no matter whether I’m on Android, iPhone, Mac, or Windows, even though Windows is just a horrible mess of dodgy update after dodgy update and Android definitely is more buggy than ios, m experience with 1Password across them all have been really solid.
# 2 - SPEED
I have had, Zero issues or complaints about 1Password 8. Even though 1Password announced they would be using Electron as the underlying platform for their code which caused some vocal complaints stating how bad this was, I've had no problems at all.
The client loads up quickly, it copies stuff, search is lightning fast and even when I quit the whole app accidentally sometimes on my Mac and then have to re-open it, that loads quickly too.
# 1 - QUICK ACCESS
Using a simple keyboard shortcut on my Mac, up pops this thing that’s called quick launch.
I can search for what I want right there and then, and if I want to, hit return for it to take me straight to the website. Or, if I just need quick access to a password or username because I’m not in a web browser - then I can just quickly copy the username or password.
This saved me SO much time when I was trying to sell about 150 NFT’s that I’d collected over the last year. I had to list each one individually, and each time it needed the password, so using this method made the process a whole lot faster.
Particularly since 1Password is more than just filling in usernames and passwords on websites. You can use it to store other personal data like national insurance, memorable questions, proof of ID and so many other things - and quick access can get you that without having to load up the full client, or a web browser page like many other clients.
3 THINGS I WANT 1PASSWORD TO FIX...
Now you can share passwords with a friend or family member, well - it would be nice to be able to automatically change that password after they’ve used it. Just in case it is anything sensitive. For example, once you’ve shared a password, and they use it, then it waits say, 5 minutes or an hour, and then automatically changes it to something else.
Sounds simple, I’m probably guessing it’s not, but either way, that would be nice.
I’d also like to see some new data types when adding information. One thing that’s missing for me personally, and going back to those NFT’s is storing the 12 or 24-word phrases for my cryptocurrency wallets, with an easy way of viewing them without having to use their big type format, which doesn’t really work that well in this instance.
Next up is the search, which I’m sure must have changed from 1Password 7 to 8, and that is now when you search using the full client, it forces you to choose one search result.
Before, you could search, hit enter, and be left with multiple results that match. (This has recently been fixed by tapping shift and enter when searching!)
This is made easier with the quick launch, yes - but if I wanted to use the full client and In my instance, say I have 4 accounts. One for me, the wife, and each kid, and I want to be able to quickly and easily log in to each of those accounts and see their memorable information or extra security, I have to search 4 times to get the info I needed.
It’s a minor one, but I imagine this might annoy some people who are used to what I’m sure was the old way of searching.
