Password manager Dashlane is releasing a rebuilt version of its one-click password changer in beta, the company announced today. With the click of a button, the Dashlane password changer can update your passwords on supported websites without you having to visit the website and change your own references.
This GIF shows how it works:
The new version of the password changer works on the device, which means that websites are less likely to indicate the attempt to change the password than unauthorized. And if the new password changer contains something like an entry form for a two-factor verification code, it can tell a user that they will have to take the step manually so that Dashlane can take care of the rest, as you can see. in the GIF below.
However, there is one major caveat: the new password changer does not yet work on every website. Dashlane’s goal for the beta is that each customer is able to change at least two passwords in their vault with the tool to get started, and the company says it currently operates about 100 sites, “including popular social media, streaming, shopping and news sites.”
Dashlane first introduced a one-click password changer in 2014, but over time it began to work less reliably, said Derek Snyder, Dashlane’s chief product officer, in an interview with The edge. The older version of the password changer is managed by Dashlane’s servers, which is not only a potential privacy risk but can also cause problems with the actual password change process. On a website, for example, Dashlane may try to change a user’s password as an unauthorized login, since the change attempt comes from a different location than where the user was.
One advantage of a one-click password changer is that in theory it is easy to quickly change an affected login. “If Dashlane becomes aware of a breach in a service used by a significant number of users, the company’s goal is to have a new one-click password ready in a matter of hours,” Snyder said. said. This way, people can quickly violate a notification with a few clicks. (Dashlane maintains a database of compromised sites, which you can check here.)
And if a website changes the password flow in a way that breaks Dashlane’s one-click tool, the company’s engineers can remove the “recipe” for the Dashlane password change so they can fix it, Snyder said. If you need to change your password in the meantime, you need to change it the old-fashioned way.
Dashlane is also launching a new beta-engine-powered autofill engine. The idea is that Dashlane’s machine learning algorithms can teach you how to recognize fields to fill in and to fill in the content of your Dashlane safe on the page faster and more accurately. Dashlane says that the new engine should work in all areas as soon as it is set up with you.
Both features are available to users in Dashlane’s beta program, which you can sign up for here. The password changer will be available to any beta user today, and the company will introduce it to non-beta users in due course. The new autofill engine will be available to beta users within a week or so and will be available to more users over time.
Users at Dashlane’s paid level and free level, which only work with one device and with which you can only store credentials for up to 50 accounts, will be able to use the new autofill engine ‘always and forever’, according to Snyder. The new one-click password changer will be available to paid and free Dashlane users during the beta, but the company has not yet decided whether it will be a paid option if it is widely available, Snyder said. Both features will be out of beta later this year.
The changes to Dashlane come a few days before popular password manager LastPass will restrict its free users from accessing their passwords on just one category of devices, mobile or computer. If you’re looking for an alternative, the convenience of Dashlane’s updated one-click password changer and its new autofill engine may make it your choice. And if you want to see other free alternatives to LastPass and Dashlane, go to our guide.