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Why was 1P8 released in a seemingly unfinished state?
This is a rant, and I don't truly expect a reply from support as I know they can't really give any kind of satisfying answers to these questions/issue - but I felt compelled to express my frustrations regardless.
There are so many issues with 1P8 on iOS, both in missing features, feature regressions, and bugs (I'd say even more than on the Mac, and there are a still a TON of issues with the Mac version) that I really question the logic of not just releasing it in this current state, but also delisting 1P7.
Was there some kind of hard timeline set for the release regardless of the state it was in? If that was the case, then 1P7 should have been kept up on the App Store to make it easier for users to downgrade back to it (and yes I know you can go into your purchases section in the App Store to re-download it, but a lot of iOS users don't realize you can do that). If the hard timeline wasn't the case, then when in the world thought that this app was ready for prime time?
One of the most egregious issues is the lack of an Apple Watch app, and worse off that there was zero mention that such an app is no longer apart of 1P8. The vast majority of people (myself included) only found out about this after installing 1P8 and noticing the Watch app was gone. I've read some replies that the Watch is coming back, but it just wasn't ready for the initial release, which begs the question, again, why was 1P8 released if it wasn't ready?
I am really, really, really concerned about the future of AgileBits and 1Password. Nearly every decision since the announcement of 1P8 has been user hostile and has been only good for the bottomline of AgileBits (i.e. subscription only, no more local vaults, a switch to Electron, etc.). And as such I'm finding it more and more difficult to justify staying with 1Password. The fact that support can't give answers to certain fundamental questions (like when will 1P8 be released on the Mac App Store, and if it won't be, why?) because it is basically against company policy to talk about future plans, makes it extremely difficult to judge whether the plethora of documented issues will actually get fixed.
I know 1P8 was just released for iOS, and there will of course be growing pains as a result, but if you look at 1P8 for Desktop (on all platforms), which has been out for many months at this point, there are still a ton of issues that have not been resolved, some going all the way back to the first betas (such as the abysmal search capabilities). As such, I have very little faith that the iOS version will actually get better when the Desktop versions really haven't.
As it stands, I feel like I'm paying a monthly fee to beta test software. Furthermore, when users express their frustrations in this regard, and ask how to downgrade back to 1P7, support will almost always answer that they "don't recommend people use 1P7 as it is no longer actively supported" before explaining how to downgrade. If you don't want users to downgrade, then release a piece of software that actually works and doesn't make us feel like we're beta testing it.
Finally, I have made a decision that if 1P8 doesn't get better in a meaningful way in the next couple of months, I will be canceling my subscription and moving elsewhere (currently looking at both Enpass and Minimalist Password Manager), and I am advocating for friends and family to do so as well.
And thus concludes my rant. Do with it what you will.
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18 Replies
Um . . . no - sane organizations (of which AgileBits (1Password?) is one) don't rewrite apps to suit their project management methodology. If you want to know the driving force behind the changes, you can read about it here. https://blog.1password.com/1password-8-the-story-so-far/
You are describing why they chose to rewrite, I am describing how they chose to do it.
I share the same opinion as all of you. And one additional comment, the agile development that steven1 mentions lends itself very well to the subscription model, because there are constant releases to justify being subscribed, even though some of the features were present before.
There's still enough features to keep me from looking into other alternatives, but that's not something I would have even considered in the past, before AgileBits had such a profound change in the target of their overall mission.
Um . . . no - sane organizations (of which AgileBits (1Password?) is one) don't rewrite apps to suit their project management methodology. If you want to know the driving force behind the changes, you can read about it here. https://blog.1password.com/1password-8-the-story-so-far/
Summary: They had several different codebases, which caused siloed development efforts and wildly different timelines for implementing services across all of them. By rewriting as much code as possible in reusable, cross platform friendly languages (like Rust and Electron . . . barf) they limit the amount of rework required and make it much easier to implement cross platform strategies. They're also clearly going hard after enterprise business.
From an IT / Business management standpoint it makes all the sense in the world. Unfortunately they broke and regressed a lot of things their user base loves in the process.
1Password, like most software developers, have probably switched to an 'Agile' method of development, as opposed to the old 'Waterfall' method. Very (very) loose and rough differences are: waterfall looks to spec everything out and build out large produts or featues in a big bang relaese. Very crudely, this assumes your product feature set and dev resources are fixed, and things are released when they are released. This asssumes your customers will stick around.
With Agile development, the assumption is that you have fixed time to deliver stuff. So, complete rewrites (like 1P8) are done with a view to deliver the minimum viable feature set within that timeline, i.e. the minimum amount to make it usable (or not completely piss their millions of users off).
This does mean a more predictable cadence to new releases, and I have no doubt many of the features may come back as people vote with their displeasure (here for instance) so that they get prioritsed appropriately. Many missing features may already be on the backlog of features they want to implement in the new platform.
I am fine with all these, and have faith that 1pw will continue to evolve in a positive way. I am not a fan of the we know best and taking away security options (e.g. taking away options of when the master pw is required), or indeed, introduce severe https://1password.community/discussion/132299/security-regressions-in-1password-8-for-ios.
Still nothing...no responses from anyone at the company. IOS version is dramatically inferior. Hard to use, and poorly thought out. We are end users and our opinions mean less than the shareholders. Have been a long time user, but now looking around for other options, as IOS is mainly where I need a password manager.
My theory is that after accepting a ton of VC money, they were given an edict by the VC's to release something new within a certain period of time. That would explain a ton of the extremely questionable decision made over the past year or so - from eliminating standalone licenses and local vaults, to the move to Electron for desktop to development, to releasing apps across all major platforms that obviously not ready for primetime.
Alas, this is not really a surprising outcome. Many companies that take in VC money end up with a crappy product as the focus is no longer on user experience but making as much money as possible to make the VC's happy.
Welcome to late stage Capitalism :p
Well said. It really does feel like the devs were on a hard deadline and the releases were forced out the door despite not being ready.
Given what I’ve seen about bugs making it into production despite being reported in early betas makes me wonder if the devs and/or QA team are stretched too thin.
Eloquently put and mirrors my feelings entirely.
I’ve removed 1p8 and reverted to v7. If the situation doesn’t improve I will also be migrating myself and my family account to another platform.
