Report: Apple may make it even easier to manage passwords on the iPhone and Mac
Yes, Apple’s long offered an easy way to save usernames and passwords as part of iCloud Keychain and even allowed syncing them across devices for easy sign-ins. However, Apple may soon devote an entire application across platforms to password management.
According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple will show off a new app called Passwords at WWDC 2024. The app will be a part of, and available on, “iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS 15.” Like iCloud Keychain, the dedicated app can “generate passwords and keep track of them.”
Reportedly, on iOS or iPadOS, it will move out of Settings and into a dedicated app, while on the Mac, it will leave Safari Settings and turn into a dedicated app. As you might suspect, iCloud Keychain will still be the backbone of this experience.
The application will be a one-stop shop for password management across Apple devices and be divided into categories. It will support standard logins and passwords, saved Wi-Fi networks, and passkeys that utilize Touch ID or Face ID. Releasing a dedicated password management app will put Apple more directly in competition with third-party services like LastPass, Aura, and 1Password.
Like those, Apple’s Passwords solution will likely support the import of passwords, possibly encouraging folks to opt for the one built into the heart of the platforms.
The latest report also notes that passwords will work on Vision Pro – we’ll note the $3,500 Spatial Computer already supports iCloud Keychain for auto-filling – and on Windows computers. It’s unclear if that will be a formal application or a web experience for the latter. Either route, the application will offer the ability to autofill logins and passwords on these devices.
As someone who uses iCloud Keychain, I already appreciate that it works across platforms, and a dedicated application might make it easier to manage them. And if I am searching for a password, it'll be a bit easier to open an app and authenticate versus diving into settings. It will be neat to see if any new features are rolled out, potentially an ability to auto-update logins or passwords after a set amount of time. That's all speculative, though.
Apple will likely unveil the Passwords app alongside a trove of other news at its opening keynote for WWDC 2024. Much of the focus will likely be on integrating artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) announcements for all of Apple’s platforms – iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS, and visionOS.
We’ll know for sure on June 10, 2024, and you can see the other rumored announcements ahead of the World Wide Developers Conference here.
