1Password shares new password sharing feature that Apple’s iCloud Keychain should share too

Zac Hall | Oct 12 2021 - 8:40 am PT

The password manager gurus at 1Password are launching a new password sharing feature that adds security to a common practice. Password Secure Sharing Tool, or Psst! for short, lets you share specific passwords with a simple link. The recipient of your password doesn’t even need to be a 1Password user.

If linking your account credentials on the web sounds risky, consider these controls 1Password has built to compete with simply messaging passwords around:

Links expire after a 1 hour to 30 day period determined by the password owner so the plain text password isn’t sitting on someone else’s computer indefinitely
Similar to Dropbox or iCloud file sharing, password links can be shared with anyone with link access or specific users
If you share a password with a specific user, they must validate their email address first (but do not need to use 1Password!) before accessing the shared link

1Password already supports sharing Vaults, or collections of passwords, with family members and co-workers, but those methods require 1Password memberships for each user.

Password Secure Sharing Tool isn’t as robust for sharing collections of passwords, but the new tool sounds compelling for granting someone access to your Netflix or Amazon password as a one-off event without being totally insecure.

Apple has recently beefed up its own password management tools with iCloud Keychain in iOS 15. iCloud Keychain users no longer need to use a third-party service for generating 2FA codes which is a huge relief. Apple also released a dedicated iCloud Keychain password manager tool for Windows recently.

1Password is certainly a more mature and platform-agnostic password manager, however, so we shouldn’t expect iCloud Keychain to take on Psst! anytime soon.

Password Secure Sharing Tool details were shared first with Engadget ahead of the official announcement. Thoughts on this new method of sharing passwords using expiring links? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.