AutoFill in non-Safari browsers on Mac

Minimalist AutoFill is currently limited to browsers and apps which support Apple’s AutoFill system. On iOS this includes virtually all of them: Chrome, FireFox, Brave, DuckDuckGo, Edge, Opera, and probably many others. On Mac however, it's currently limited to Safari only... at least for now.

Why don’t we have browser extensions for non-Safari browsers?

We’re really stuck between a rock and a hard place on this one.

On the one hand we completely understand the need for cross-browser AutoFill. However, on the other hand we have limited resources and developing dedicated browser plugins is a non-trivial amount of work and future maintenance.

Moreover, Apple’s AutoFill system has some pretty significant benefits regarding security, privacy, and convenience which you can read about in AutoFill without Browser Extensions.

Our hope is for other browsers to integrate with Apple's AutoFill system on Mac so third party password managers like Minimalist will “just work” like they already do on iOS.

When will other browsers integrate with Apple's AutoFill system on Mac?

To our knowledge no other browser manufacture has announced plans to integrate with Apple's AutoFill system. However that doesn't mean they won't. Most software companies are looking for ways to improve their products and user experience, we just need to let them know how!

So please submit feedback to your favorite browser maker requesting them to:

  • Add support for Apple's AutoFill system on Mac.

What are we doing in the mean time?

We’re currently exploring options for AutoFill support in non-Safari browsers which include:

  • Full-featured extensions for each browser:
    • This will be a lot of work and future maintenance. It will also distract us from improving the main Minimalist app experience. This is not our favorite option.
  • Mac Menu Bar App:
    • This may be a reasonable alternative for many people because it’s always available via the status bar (or global keyboard shortcut) and can support drag and drop into any text field. Dragging usernames and passwords would be slightly more effort than a proper AutoFill solution, but it would work 100% of the time which tends not to be the case with AutoFill solutions, including Apple’s AutoFill.
  • Some combination of the Mac Menu Bar App solution and a light-weight browser extension to enable true AutoFill with a fraction of the work and future maintenance for us:
    • We're currently leaning towards this one.
  • Waiting for browsers to support Apple’s AutoFill system:
    • Not likely to happen, but you never know!
  • Simply deciding to focus our efforts on Apple platforms, including Safari, and not supporting alternatives:
    • We really don’t want to do this, but we’d be lying if we said it hadn't crossed our minds.

Have a preference or another idea? Feel free to reach out at hello@minimalistpassword.com.

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