Android has had an autofill feature for password managers for years now, but it’s broken and needs to be fixed.

  • Björn TantauEnglish
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    10 days ago
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    Yeah, it’s really a mystery to me how this can be so inconsistent across providers. With one app I have to click a separate button/dropdown-thingy and another fills the username and password in directly.

    • Björn TantauEnglish
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      10 days ago
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      And on top of that Google’s own password manager which I had deactivated managed to weasel itself into the foreground on my kid’s phone. It was a pain to deactivate it again.

      • Lucy :3English
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        10 days ago
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        Never had that happen actually

        • Björn TantauEnglish
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          10 days ago
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          No idea how it happened. I think when my wife created an account for something on there it asked to save it. And since then it intercepted every password request.

          • Lucy :3English
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            10 days ago
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            Which app do you use? In my case it’s KeePass2Android (for Webdav/Nextcloud support)

            • Björn TantauEnglish
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              10 days ago
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              Nextcloud Passwords. It works more or less like yours. Just one of the other Nextcloud Password apps didn’t. Only after I switched did I realise that it could be different.

    • Lucy :3English
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      10 days ago
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      For me I just have to click on the entry, if the KeePass DB is unlocked. Otherwise I click on the “KeePass2Android” entry, it opens the app, I unlock it and it either autofills or I just then finally click the entry.

      • Björn TantauEnglish
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        10 days ago
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        As it should be. But for some inane reason it works differently for other apps.

  • mannycalaveraEnglish
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    10 days ago
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    I dunno, I use Bitwarden and Firefox on Android so pretty none mainstream and don’t have any of the issues this clown does. Seems like a click bait article for the sake of it.

    • evoEnglish
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      10 days ago
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      Bitwarden works well in every app and browser I’ve tried.

      • ChewyEnglish
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        10 days ago
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        My banking apps lock screens consistently aren’t recognized by Bitwarden Android.

        Some websites/apps only show the email field at first, then add the password field afterwards. This also sometimes makes it not being detected as a login form.

        Sometimes a password field is detected only on the first filling in (which is annoying when choosing the wrong entry).

        On desktop it’s great, but I really don’t know why some apps have to do custom login screens.

        • AppoxoEnglish
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          9 days ago
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          That banking apps are annoying isnt news :p

    • CameronDevEnglish
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      9 days ago
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      Same setup, and its largely fine, but about 5-10% of the time bitwarden/keyboard will fail to show the password auto complete buttons, and I’ll have to copy paste manually, or restart Firefox. Really annoying, albeit rare.

    • ashaman2007English
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      10 days ago
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      Agreed depending on Google to implement or fix very specific features is just shouting into the void. Use a trusted 3rd party app like Bitwarden, as you mentioned

    • Southern WolfEnglish
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      9 days ago
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      +1 from me as well. I almost never have issues with Bitwarden. And when I do its usually in apps that don’t allow autofill in a normalish way. So I’m not sure thays really Google’s or Bitwarden’s fault, but the app developers

    • lengauEnglish
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      9 days ago
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      Yeah, I had this sort of experience back with LastPass, but Bitwarden works beautifully for me.

      There’s a potentially valid criticism if that occurs because iOS’s mechanism is robust to poorly implemented password managers and Android’s isn’t, but that’s also not the criticism being provided here.

    • AppoxoEnglish
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      9 days ago
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      Mixed experiences beyond firefox with bitwarden. But they are usually minuscule.

  • Carighan MaconarEnglish
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    10 days ago
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    I mean in their defense, apps really ought to have “normal” log-in screens. Providers working around that feels like a bandaid instead of a fix.

  • skymtfEnglish
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    9 days ago
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    Imagine it gets fixed but only in Google Autofill and not Android auto fill

  • ramble81English
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    10 days ago
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    That’s one thing I do like about iOS, there’s a secrets manager API and you can use their default keychain, or a 3rd party app like bitwarden and they all interface the same.

  • JesusSonEnglish
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    7 days ago
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    Forget all the password managers, just make all your passwords the same thing. You can use your middle name and your phone number, maybe throw a # in there to make it super secure.

  • AppoxoEnglish
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    9 days ago
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    Dunno whats the issue.
    I use bitwarden and it was a bit inconsistent with gboard.
    Currently using Futo keyboard and I get a convenient bitwarden widget/shortcut in my keyboard quick access bar (dunno what they call it).

    Just in some situations it doesnt auto-pop up and it doesnt ask if I want to save a password on Android (Version 14 - Pixel 7 Pro)

  • candyman337English
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    10 days ago
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    I have the password manager set to show as a drop-down below the password blank itself rather than in a bar above the keyboard and it seems to work pretty well

    • Nemo WumingEnglish
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      9 days ago
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      I’d like to try that. How do you get to that settings?

      • candyman337English
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        9 days ago
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        After checking it seems to be within the password manager I use, 1password’s settings, but I think? Bitwarden has a similar setting