1Password radiated an early access rendition of 1Password 8 for iOS, which fetches a redesigned interface and new backend for iPhone and iPad users.
Since August, the latest interpretation of the app, which 1Password says will ultimately make its way to all its supported platforms, has been functional in early access mode for Mac and was released for Windows in November.
The redesign is immediately apparent when you open the app’s beta version. Almost every icon has been modified to be a little more fun and colorful, and the interface handles more modern now.
1Password 7 unlocked to a favorites screen with a few newly used passwords. Other than marking or unmarking logins as choices, there wasn’t much you could do to customize the screen. It was always a little frustrating for me because you never had to use the screen and would immediately jump to search.
1Password 8 has a home screen that lets you access things like your vaults, categories, and lists of recently created or modified passwords. You can also change it to fit how you organize and access your passwords — if you’re a big user of categories, favorites, and tags, you can move those options to the top. If you dump everything into one folder, you can hide everything but “All Items.”
The app’s old (well, current) version would let you understand if one of your passwords had been compromised and could caution you if the login you were considering had a reused password. Still, there wasn’t a single screen that let you manage your general security. The new version of the iOS app adjusts the desktop version’s Watchtower section for mobile, giving you an overall security score.
There’s been some controversy around 1Password 8 after the company announced that its Mac app’s user interface would be powered by Electron (the web browser tech behind apps like Slack, Evernote, and Discord) instead of native code like SwiftUI or AppKit.
Some users worried that the change would make the password manager more resource-intensive to run or feel less like a real Mac app. However you think about that shift, it’s not a factor with this iOS app, which 1Password has said uses SwiftUI for the interface and Rust for the core.
Of course, there are other reasons you may not want to use an early access version of a password manager. While it’s been okay for me, there will probably be a few bugs for testers to catch. Suppose your phone’s password manager is critical to your work and/or life.
In that case, it’s probably best to wait until an official release, especially since this update is a significant change from the previous version. If you’re okay with high odds of flakiness, though, and want to try the redesign for yourself as soon as possible.