Introducing Smart Lock For Passwords: Google’s New Password Manager For Android Apps

Google just launched Smart Lock for Passwords during the I/O Conference recently held in San Francisco. As its name implies, Smart Lock for Passwords is basically a password managing tool for logging in to Android mobile apps or to the web. It is built into the user's Google account, which makes for a convenient and safe way of managing passwords for various apps for mobile devices.

Some may say that what Smart Lock is doing is essentially similar to what Chrome is already doing on the Internet. But Smart Lock is specially designed to be used for mobile apps. For example, you want to log in to the New York Times app. When you are done logging in, Smart Lock will ask you if you want it to save your password for the NYT app to your Google account. And if you ever use another mobile device and sign in to your Google account, the next time you launch the NYT app, Smart Lock will pre-fill your password for you.

The great thing about Smart Lock for Passwords is that developers can incorporate this tool on the apps they created via a Smart Lock application program interface (API). This means that more and more apps will be able to support the use of Smart Lock. As for website and app developers, supporting Smart Lock can encourage more sign ups and log ins, even more so now that there is a tool that makes it easier for mobile users to log in to their mobile apps. 

Apart from partnering with the New York Times in developing this project, Google also collaborated with other parties like Netflix, LinkedIn, Instacart, Eventbrite, and Orbitz. And it appears that Netflix is planning to incorporate Smart Lock for Passwords on Android TV, where the process of entering passwords could really be made more convenient. 

Moreover, Google is also looking to add support for sync pass phrases on Android, which would let users encrypt their passwords so even Google can not decipher them.

Smart Lock for Passwords is evidence that Google really is making an effort to tighten its security measures especially involving the use mobile apps and when surfing the Internet. Last year, the search giant even altered its search ranking algorithms in order to urge more websites to utilize safer encrypted connections. Also in 2014, Google also activated encryption protocols for all emails on Gmail, making sure that if ever an email is intercepted while in transit, the message would come out as garbled text.