Autofill has been an important part of our Android experience as it makes our digital lives faster and easier. But sometimes, it doesn’t work as quickly as we would like it to and some phones have a lag time in recognizing the password entry fields. The upcoming Android 11 will bring a major improvement to this feature as they will bring a new autofill method that will already integrate autofill with your virtual keyboard which should make it faster and easier but hopefully still as secure.
According to Android Police, a new Android Developer Resource has shown up and is actually being seen by some developers already. Basically what will happen is that the keyboard app that you’re using, whether it’s Gboard or a third-party app will be integrated with the autoflll for passwords. This means, instead of getting the current method of the autofill floating over the text field, you’ll now see it at the top of your virtual keyboard.
The developer page says that with Android 11, keyboards and other input-method editors or IMEs will be able to display these autofill suggestion inline. You will see a suggestion strip on top of your keyboard instead of the dropdown menu or floating suggestion. It will only be able to see your password once you’ve tapped the strip so if you have a privacy or security concern, it’s just like with the previous or rather, current autofill.
Chrome’s new autofill interface may actually be a preview of what it will look like on your Android smartphone. But the suggestion strip is just on top of the keyboard and not really integrated. When it’s implemented in Android 11, both the keyboard and the password manager will need to be updated in order for it to actually work. Currently, developers running Android 11 and using Gboard may already start seeing it.
As to when we’ll see this on our devices, well first we need to have the stable version of Android 11 start rolling out. And depending on what keyboard and password manager you use, you will have to probably wait a few more months.
