How to prevent 1P's icon from appearing in the Dock at startup

Thanks for your insight and kind words, @onepassworduser1 ! I'm afraid I don't have any updates to share currently but I do see your point and will add a note internally that this is something you'd like to see as well. 🙂

ref: dev/core/core#9943
ref: PB-30857417

Hey all - first I want to say that I appreciate the thoughtful responses from the 1Password team here - too often I feel like there's a complete lack of transparency between user requests and feature roadmap, so I appreciate that it's at least on your radar.

I also respect the point that most apps don't have this feature, although I personally wish that weren't the case.

If you guys would like to see an example of another Mac application that allows for this functionality, you should check out 'Todoist.' I view Todoist and 1Password in the same realm of applications.

Years ago, in a product/design/engineering meeting I was in, one of our best designers said that the goal of our application was to be like an exceptional butler. When you need something, it's right at your fingertips. When you don't, it disappears until it's needed again. I feel like that's a perfect analog for how I view 1Password. When I want it, I really need it - but when I don't need it, it can feel like a distraction when it's there.

tortugonal Thank you for your suggestion. It is the best and most respectful solution IMHO. It's been more than 6 months since I first posted this request and an update to 1password 8 has been published which didn't address the problem that I reported. I'm still having to continuously remove the 1p icon from the dock and it's still a nuisance to me. Can we be hopeful that some progress has been made with the dev team, Peter?

Throwing my two cents in the mix. Well said by everyone who has posted already but a hide dock option would be brilliant. My password manager should run in the background but I rarely need access it enough to warrant an icon in the dock.

Makes sense to me, viswiz. 👍

I think this relates to the way how you use 1PW. If it's a (background)tool that helps filling credentials then one would like to hide its icon. But if it's a full fledged secure data management program for you, you would possible like to have within the dock and application switcher.

Thanks for the suggestion, tortugonal. I have passed it on to our development team.

The easiest solution would be for your design team to add two checkboxes: hide from dock and hide from menu bar. Apple does this with control panel items, for instance, in the menu bar, and it works well. You can always force-launch 1P and go into settings to find it. Default to showing both, and when the user un-clicks (at least the first time), show a dialog box explaining how to get back to default behavior.

This is not rocket science. Lots of apps and Apple accessories (bluetooth, clock, sound, etc.) have this kind of behavior.

If I'm not mistaken, you used to have an option to keep alive the 1password mini process after quit; that was perfect.

I see where some of the phrasings we used above may have given the wrong impression. I apologize for that. I'd reiterate this statement as the most accurate state for this discussion at this time:

Our design team has done some brainstorming around this, though it doesn't look like we've yet landed anywhere solid.

There are plenty of opinions about how this should work, even amongst our team members. I am making sure that we consider your position in that conversation. I cannot promise that we'll go in any particular direction here. We may ultimately decide that the current behavior is how things will continue to work.

There are very many Mac apps that start when logging in and don't display an app icon in the dock. They only show up as a small icon in the top Mac menu bar, so I don't quite understand your point or why 1P has to display an app icon in the dock.

That is correct, but in fairness: there are just as many if not more that do not work that way.

Ben

I may have exaggerated by saying that it's a sign of disrespect but it certainly is a nuisance having to constantly (ever single day) remove the 1P icon from the dock because it takes up one of only 3 available slots for recent apps in the dock. There are very many Mac apps that start when logging in and don't display an app icon in the dock. They only show up as a small icon in the top Mac menu bar, so I don't quite understand your point or why 1P has to display an app icon in the dock. What I don't appreciate is being told that the 1Password team is working on a fix and waiting only to realise that my request wasn't taken seriously. That's not considerate. I hope that you understand my grievances this time around. Thank you.

Olivier