With the release of Android Oreo, Google included an autofill API to allow for system-wide filling in of details such as account and credit card info. The framework manages communication between Google’s autofill service and other apps, and it’s great for both saving time and avoiding errors.
The first developer preview of Android P has just arrived and it brings a number of new APIs to the autofill framework, as well as some bugfixes. Specifically, there will be improvements to dataset filtering, input sanitization, and compatibility mode.
A better compatibility mode should offer the most obvious user-facing enhancements, as this will allow password managers to use the antiquated accessibility option for autofill when an app doesn’t support the system-wide solution. LastPass is one such password manager that stands to gain from the changes, which is another boost after recently adding full support for Oreo’s autofill API. It managed to retain accessibility-based support in the process, but that will now also be handled by the autofill framework, making for better security and performance.
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