Early access and Alfred / Spotlight / LaunchBar (3rd party search integration)

Hello HRD,

I'm sorry for the frustration we caused and are continuing to cause you on this.

You're right that 3rd-party app integration hasn't bubbled up on our priority list yet and I'm sorry that it's causing you pain. It's something we'd like to revisit when we have a chance.

There are many on the team that love Alfred, including myself. My Mac feels completely broken without it and I even wrote An Alfred Love Letter on Twitter shouting out my love for the app and the team behind it. So I have absolutely nothing against this feature. I would like it added and someday I hope we will.

With that said, at this moment, we're simply stretched too thin to make this a priority. Some on the team pushed me to raise it on the priority list and I regretfully had to say no as there were too many other things competing for priority.

As you quoted we indeed launched the first early access on August 11th of last year. It feels like a long time but let's put some numbers to it. Wolframalpha reports that the first release was 132 weekdays ago (business days if you prefer) and in that time the 1Password for Mac beta changelog has grown to include 23 new betas with over 400 improvements. We can argue about the priority of individual changes but the point is there's a lot going on. The team is averaging about 4 improvements a day and I feel they're doing great. The last thing I want to do is disrupt the team with changing priorities on this mid-stream or requiring them to spin even more plates in the air. We made a call on our priorities and we are moving forward. I agree with you we should add this feature and when we get a chance we'll start a small project to revisit this and push it through.

Again, I am sorry that I'm causing you more work and frustration. My comments here are not meant to be an excuse or otherwise. I simply thought sharing some of the behind the scenes details could help.

Finally, I'd like to mention what I try to mention on every announcement around betas and early access: if you enjoy being on the bleeding edge, jump on in! If you don't, wait for the release. It's always hard to get a solid read on feelings over text but I don't get the feeling you are having fun. If you're not and/or Alfred integration is critical to your workflows, please use 1Password 7. It's a great app and you can dive into 1Password 8 once we're able to add 3rd party app integration.

Peace. ✌️

++dave;
1Password Founder