Apple’s password manager is compatible with third-party browsers in the latest macOS beta

Image credits: Photography by Javier Zayas / Getty Images

Apple yesterday released the first public beta of macOS Sonoma, the next major macOS update that will be available to everyone this fall. After this update, Mac users will be able to use Apple’s password manager in third-party web browsers, such as Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Arc.

You may not know that macOS has a built-in password manager that can securely store all your passwords. You can access it from the system settings and view stored passwords using your fingerprint or computer password.

There are many benefits to using a password manager. It means that you can use a different and sophisticated password for every website and service where you have an account. This way, when a service faces a data breach, your online accounts remain relatively safe. You can change your password on the targeted site and move forward.

Thanks to iCloud, if you store your passwords in Apple’s password manager, they sync with your other Apple devices, like your iPhone or iPad. But what if you have an iPhone but use a Windows computer at work?

In 2021, Apple released a Google Chrome extension for Windows called iCloud Passwords. The company released a similar extension for Microsoft Edge shortly thereafter.

But those extensions don’t work on macOS, which means you need to use Safari if you want to take advantage of Apple’s password manager on your Mac. Safari automatically fills in your login information, generates passwords when you create a new account, and saves your passwords in the manager. apple password. Safari is also a great web browser but, yes, many people use Google Chrome.

As Apple’s Ricky Mondello pointed out on Twitter, that’s about to change with macOS Sonoma. The company will bring the iCloud Passwords extension to Google Chrome on Mac.

Since many web browsers are based on Chromium, they tend to support Chrome extensions natively. For example, Arc and Brave should support the iCloud Passwords extension for macOS Sonoma.

As with other browsers, Apple is already actively working port of the Microsoft Edge extension even on macOS. We currently don’t have support for Mozilla Firefox, but that’s a request I understand, Mondello wrote on Mastodon.

Having a password manager that you can access from anywhere will be even more important in the near future as more and more sites start offering passkey support.

For example, you can now use a passkey to log into Gmail instead of your usual password. A passkey is automatically generated by your device and stored in a safe place. On macOS, it can be stored in Apple’s password manager and synced with your other Apple devices.

It’s also worth noting that many Mac users have enthusiastically used 1Password as their personal password manager. But 1Password is now increasingly focused on enterprise customers and cross-platform compatibility.

Since Apple’s password manager will soon be accessible from within Google Chrome, many people may start to consider moving away from 1Password and using Apple’s built-in password manager instead. Shared passwords also come with iOS 17 and macOS Sonoma.