Hi Codebook users, we’ve been quite busy all summer preparing feature improvements to Codebook while also getting ready for new major versions of iOS and macOS this Fall (iOS 14 was released Tuesday, while macOS 11 Big Sur is still in beta and widely expected to drop in the next month or so). Here I’d like to take a minute to cover some of the great new things we have coming down the pike.
Codebook Autofill for Android
We have a new Autofill feature for Android! After you enable the feature (it’s disabled by default), when you focus on a text field you will begin to see the Codebook Autofill menu. It provides you with suggestions for the current URL, and access to all of your entries with a Search feature. Selecting a suggestion or another entry will cause the current login form to be filled in with the username and password from that entry.
Here’s a quick demo:
We anticipate releasing this feature in version 4.3.0. We hope to start beta testing it soon, we’re putting the final touches on it now. Autofill requires Android 4.3 and up. Improved matching behavior is available for devices running Android OS 8.0 and up. The autofill service will only insert data stored in Codebook based on user selection of entries or specific field values.
AutoFill in Codebook for macOS on Big Sur
Earlier this year at their developer conference, Apple announced new Password AutoFill support in macOS 11 Big Sur, allowing password manager apps like Codebook to provide AutoFill capabilities in Safari and other Mac apps, just like we do now in Codebook for iOS!
Here’s a short demo showing how easy it is to login with your passwords stored in Codebook, using AutoFill on macOS 11 Big Sur:
Just like we do with our AutoFill support on iOS and now Android, Codebook’s AutoFill support on macOS provides suggestions for the current URL, and the ability to search all your entries for the login credentials you need.
Codebook AutoFill, along with support for macOS 11 Big Sur, will be released in version 4.3.0.
Note: we have decided to raise the minimum version of macOS that Codebook supports. Currently, Codebook supports versions 10.10 through 10.15, which is quite a lot of versions of the OS! We hate to cut off support for updates to users on older versions of macOS, but we do occasionally have to raise the minimum deployment target in order to access modern macOS APIs and features, comply with deprecations, and provide everybody with the best experience on as many versions of macOS as we can. It’s also important to do this at a point of maximum compatibility; Codebook for macOS 4.3.0 will be able to sync with Codebook 4.1.0 and higher, and customers on older versions of macOS that we currently support with 4.2.0 will be able to sync with 4.3.0.
Thus, Codebook for macOS will require macOS 10.12 or higher starting with version 4.3.0.
Codebook for Windows
We have several improvements underway in Codebook for Windows that we’re looking forward to releasing in version 4.3.0.
Password Generator: Exclude Characters Option
The Password Generator feature on Windows will now have an Exclude option, allowing you to specify characters that should be excluded when generating random passwords:
New: View License
There’s a new View License window in Codebook for Windows, making it easier for you to look up your license key and copy it to the Clipboard if needed:
Note: that is not a valid license key shown in the above screenshot.
New: Password Weakness Warnings
Codebook for iOS and macOS already provide the ability to review a password for weakness warnings, and now we’re bringing this feature to Windows! Using the Zxcvbn library, Codebook runs a series of sanity checks on a password and provides warnings when it detects potential weaknesses.
iOS 14 Compatibility
The current version of Codebook for iOS in the App Store right now runs alright on iOS 14 with some minor glitches, but since the official release dropped Tuesday we have become aware of a bug on the Sync view. Due to changes in the new iOS 14 Privacy settings for Local Network Access, Codebook may be unable to Sync over WiFi even after you have allowed Local Network access.
We have an update to fix this awaiting App Store review from Apple right now, and as soon as they approve it (fingers crossed: like many developers, sometimes our updates get rejected by Apple for random reasons), we’ll release it right away to all users. In the meantime, if you are prompted by iOS 14 to allow Codebook access to the Local Network, please choose Allow so that you can use the WiFi sync feature.
Also coming in this iOS 14 update: a new date picker!
Image Attachments
Saving the best for last, we have been working on a new Images feature in Codebook for macOS to support image attachments on entries:
As you can see, the feature supports drag and drop, it caches thumbnails for the images, displays them in Finder-like thumbnail and list modes, and supports hi-resolution, large image files.
Support for image attachments in Codebook has been a long time coming, and we’re very excited about it. We’ve got a lot more work to do, so it won’t be in the next version of Codebook, but we’d like to roll out support for images on all four platforms by the end of the year.