Android just made switching password managers a whole lot safer and easier

Passwords are basically the keys to our digital lives. They protect everything from our emails and social media accounts to banking apps and personal photos, so the last thing you want is to accidentally leave them exposed. Unfortunately, that can become a concern when you decide to switch password managers.

Right now, you may have to export your entire vault as a file, save it to your device, and then import it into your new password manager. Worse, that exported file can be unencrypted, which means all those usernames and passwords you’ve spent years protecting could temporarily sit together in a regular file on your phone. You also have to remember to delete it once you’re done.

Google is finally trying to make that process a lot less stressful. It’s introducing a new Android experience that lets you transfer passwords and passkeys directly between supported password managers, without manually exporting and importing them. That means the awkward middle step disappears entirely.

Say you’ve used Bitwarden for years but decide to move everything to 1Password. You’d start inside 1Password and choose the option to import or copy your passwords from another service. Android then takes over, finds the compatible password managers already installed on your phone, and asks which one you want to move your data from.

Choose Bitwarden, tap Continue, and Android opens Bitwarden so you can review the transfer and grant permission to proceed. Once you approve it, Android moves your passwords and passkeys over to 1Password. That’s pretty much it.

Most of us probably don’t switch password managers very often, but being able to do so easily gives you more freedom when you eventually want to. The new transfer option already works with Google Password Manager, 1Password, Bitwarden Password Manager, and Dashlane, with Google saying more password managers will support it in the future.