In addition to thunderous applause for the Calculator app for iPad during Apple’s WWDC 2024 keynote, the audience also seemed quite happy with the debut of Passwords. It’s an aptly named app that takes the popular password management feature of iCloud Keychain and gives it a home outside of Settings.
Passwords is a dedicated app for Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Vision Pro that securely stores logins and passwords in an encrypted place that must be authenticated with Face ID, Touch ID, or a password to open. It’s still free to use and since it’s a dedicated app, it’s now a real competitor to Lastpass and 1Password.
While some thought you might only be able to use it with Safari (after all, it’s made by Apple and Safari is Apple’s browser), we have good news.
A browser extension saves the day
Apple Passwords works with third-party browsers – Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge – through a browser extension. It’s actually the iCloud extension, which currently also gives iCloud Keychain users the option of autofill. This way, even if your preferred browser isn’t Safari, you can still use the Apple Passwords autofill feature.
In a demo I got to see the application’s interface in action; As with other password managers, you can view a complete list of all your logins alphabetically, or break them down categorically. Again, Passwords is also home to Wi-Fi networks, which is super convenient, and the application supports Passkeys and 2FA codes. For the latter, you can even import a library of 2FA codes from another service such as Google Authenticator.
You can also create a shared group, which can be useful for sharing streaming service logins with the family, for example. Instead of having to be nearby to copy and paste individually, you can share your collection of login information. It all seems quite convenient, but to make accessing saved passwords even easier, Apple has also created a menu bar experience for passwords.
Essentially, this ensures that the app icon (a single key placed vertically) is at the top of your Mac. If you need an account login or password in a pinch, just click on it and authenticate it. You can scroll or search for a specific login to quickly copy and paste it. Pretty neat. Retrieving a login from here or using the autofill functionality was quick.
Much like the current experience with iCloud Keychain or any other password manager, it will alert you to passwords that have been reused, compromised, or even leaked and suggest you change them.
Perhaps best of all, your logins are synced across all your Apple devices through the Passwords app for macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS, but can also be accessed via the web through Windows. Oh, and when Passwords launches later in 2024, it will of course be free; you just need an Apple account.