Google just announced several updates to its Password Manager service in a blog post (opens in new tab). Google has been working to keep up for some time The best password managers but it often lacked features that the other managers have offered. With this latest update, Google is hoping that its platform will sit above third-party options.
Google Password Manager: New features
The biggest update that comes with this update is the ability to add passwords directly to the app. Previously, when prompted by Google to save their password after they had already logged into a website, users had to add their password. Now users can just go into the password manager and manually add passwords for their most used logins.
Additionally, Google has announced that Android users can create a home screen shortcut that will launch Google Password Manager instantly. iOS users get something too. Google now allows iPhone users to generate passwords for their iOS apps if you set Chrome as an autofill provider.
Google Password Manager: Is it consistent across devices?
Google says that with these new updates, users will have “a simplified and unified management experience that’s the same across Chrome and Android settings.” While this may be changing, at the time of writing this article it is not quite the case.
The Chrome for Windows 10 and Android Google Password Manager are very similar, but with one notable exception. Chrome’s password manager on PC does not allow you to manually add passwords from the Google Password Manager website. Instead, users have to go to chrome://settings/passwords, where they can then manually add as many passwords as their heart desires.
Google Password Manager: How to add a password in Chrome for Windows 10
- Go to chrome://settings/passwords
- Scroll down to Saved Passwords and select Add
- Enter the URL, username and password for the password you want to add
- Click on “Save
And that’s it. The password will now appear on all your devices in the list of your saved passwords.
Google Password Manager: How to add a password on Android
You’ll have to jump through a few hoops to access Google Password Manager. But once you are actually inside the Google Password Manager on Android, the process is very simple. There is a “+” symbol next to your saved passwords. Just click on this icon and enter the credentials you want to save.
You can make accessing Google Password Manager on Android even easier by setting a shortcut on your phone’s home screen. To add this shortcut, click the gear icon in the upper-right corner of Password Manager. This will open your Password Manager settings and you will see a section where you can add a shortcut. Just tap it and you’re done.
Until Google releases a standalone app for Password Manager, it will be difficult to justify its use over a third-party application. I personally use Bitwarden, which has the best free tier of any password manager. However, it’s nice to see that Google is focusing on this important aspect of digital security.