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I'm taking this opportunity to Ask HN: what do you think of the new Bitwarden browser extension? Sure it looks more modern and a few things are better. But pe
by wiether 2y ago
I'm taking this opportunity to Ask HN: what do you think of the new Bitwarden browser extension?
Sure it looks more modern and a few things are better.
But personaly I HATE the new "copy" button.
With the old version there was a button for each field : one to copy the login, one to copy the password, one to copy the TOTP.
Now there's just a single button that will display a list of options to choose from depending on what you want to copy.
So instead of copying a field with one click, now I need to do one click, go on the right option, and another click.
Even worse: if the account contains only one field, the copy button will still display the list of options, with just one option.
How could nobody think that when the user want to copy something from a list, and this list contains only one item, the right thing to do is to copy this single thing, not ask them what they want to copy...
- Modified3019 2y agoLooks like some of these changes can be reverted: https://bitwarden.com/blog/bringing-intuitive-workflows-and-visual-updates-to-the-bitwarden-browser/#tips-for-long-time-bitwarden-users https://bitwarden.com/blog/bringing-intuitive-workflows-and-...
- wiether 2y agoThanks! I hate the title "Tips for long-time Bitwarden users" like they are seeing us as dumb but whatever. If I can get my quick buttons back, I'm glad!
- portaouflop 2y agoIdk to me the title is as neutral as it can get - how else could they word it to not offend you?
- egberts1 2y ago"We screwed the powerusers; here's how to get it back while we fix it ... back."
- 542354234235 2y agoThings change. They made sure people could go back to any legacy behavior they personally favored, or not. "Please constantly be trying to improve your product, so change the things I don't like, but don't change anything I do like, even if I still have the option to pick and choose between legacy and updated options". Man, people will bend over backwards to be offended.
- godelski 2y ago> Change the default behavior of clicking a vault item Thank fucking god... I keep opening my files when I'm really just trying to autofill because autofill doesn't work a lot of times.
- bryankaplan 2y agoBut folders are now stuffed into a small dropdown, leaving All Items as an unorganized mess. That change alone is pushing me to switch password managers.
- ajb 2y agoNice one! Have been annoyed at the new tiny 'fill' button.
- AdmiralAsshat 2y agoGo to Settings -> Appearance -> "Show quick copy actions on Vault"
- CurleighBraces 2y agoThank you!!!!!!
- _benj 2y agoThank you!! I also hated the new copy icon!!
- wiether 2y agoThanks! It looks like an afterthought from them because the label is the only one not translated on the extension. Anyway, I'm more than happy to have the quick actions back!
- Fluorescence 2y agoThanks! Also nice to see a width setting and remove animations which improves my experience. Funny how I didn't even think to look for appearance settings.
- Someone1234 2y agoYep. If you look at the feedback thread before this version was released, they legitimately did listen to feedback from power users and made changes. The first beta version had all of these annoying quirks, but then they added a bunch of settings (Compact Mode, Quick Copy Actions, Wide Mode, Disable Animations) that after you change them gives you a solid experience.
- medwards666 2y agoHave to say ... I'm still not a great fan of the new UI, but the QoL settings under the appearance tab do at least make it bearable.
- davrosthedalek 2y ago
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- Cieric 2y agoMy personal problem is that I self host and the updated extension just completely fails to connect to my vaultwarden instance. I probably just need to repull the updated docker container, but it's something I would have rather not thought about. But since the extension auto updated I'm forced to think about it.
- erdii 2y agoBe careful about using newer clients with an outdated version of the vaultwarden server. I lost a couple days of new accounts/passwords because this[1] probably happened. [1] https://github.com/dani-garcia/vaultwarden/discussions/4921 https://github.com/dani-garcia/vaultwarden/discussions/4921
- horsawlarway 2y agoInteresting - I'm also running self-hosted and didn't have this problem (I think my last image pull was about a month ago, though - so somewhat recent). If you want, I believe you can override the update url in chrome to stop the auto-update process in the future: https://chromeenterprise.google/policies/?policy=ExtensionSettings https://chromeenterprise.google/policies/?policy=ExtensionSe... Alternatively, at least for chromium browsers - you can download the .crx directly, unzip it (p7zip will do it), and sideload it using the "Developer mode" checkbox on chrome://extensions. Firefox sadly doesn't support this - they'll remove any sideloaded extensions on browser close.
- Macha 2y agoYeah, the problem is with clients from January or newer, and vaultwarden versions from before October. It did lead me to discover my automatic update process wasn't actually rebooting the vaultwarden server.
- infogulch 2y agoYou can enable the new extension UI when you're using vaultwarden by setting the EXPERIMENTAL_CLIENT_FEATURE_FLAGS=extension-refresh env var. I wrote more about it here: https://forum.cloudron.io/topic/13001/bitwarden-extension-ui-refresh https://forum.cloudron.io/topic/13001/bitwarden-extension-ui...
- packetlost 2y agoI didn't like it at first, but once I built up the muscle memory I like it a lot more.
- Someone1234 2y agoI love the fact it remembers what page you were on and leaves it on that page. In the previous version, you'd go Vault -> Search -> [Find Thing] -> Copy Username, but when you de-focused the extension it would return you to the vault home, so yet again you had to do Vault -> Search -> [Find Thing] -> Copy Password. This one, when it loses focus, it stays exactly where you left it.
- horsawlarway 2y agoI want to second this. I don't mind the general visual update. But the change to the copy buttons was a step backwards. To the bitwarden folks... if I'm opening up the extension 99% of the time it's one of these use cases: 1. I'm creating a login for a new site 2. I'm on a site that doesn't support autofill, and I'm manually copying user/pass/code 3. I'm filling credit card info, and want to select a specific card Both #2 and #3 got worse with this change. Put the damn copy buttons in the huge amount of whitespace you have for the entry. Don't hide them in an overflow. Put each of the user/pass/2fa buttons in a fixed space, and don't move them.
- infogulch 2y agoDid you look at the Appearance extension settings? They solve this problem for most people. (See elsewhere itt for details.)
- MrZander 2y agoTo throw in a second viewpoint: 99% of the time I open the extension, it is to trigger auto-fill. I don't like having my credentials auto-fill on page load, I like to be the one to trigger it. That being said, I also hated the change that hid the copy buttons, but they have a setting that brings them back.
- buggy6257 2y agoYou may know this, but they introduced a feautre that lets you use Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+L in order to trigger auto-fill. I have disabled autofill on pageload but LOVE this shortcut key.
- frameset 2y agoI'm the same as you in how I use Bitwarden. I'd also like to add that if you keep repeating that shortcut it will cycle through the different logins you have for the current site.
- 2y ago
- latchkey 2y agoFor me, it is the double scroll bars in the browser extension. One to scroll in the list of passwords and another to get to the bottom of the extension window. This is even in "compact" mode.
- panzi 2y agoInteresting, I don't have that, only one scroll bar. I use on Firefox. Do you force some different font or font size on all websites perhaps?
- doright 2y agoI like how it's faster than before but the modern UI design trends are starting to wear on me. If you could have the old theme with the new features that would be good. The two-click copy button is absolutely the worst new "feature" they added. That setting should be opt-in by default.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- yoavm 2y agoYou probably know this, but I'm just writing it here because it took me a while to figure it out — you can also use the keybinding (Ctrl+Shift+L) to fill in login forms. It works 90% of time, and you don't need to copy anything. It really reduced the number of times I'm interacting with the extension's panel.
- portaouflop 2y agoIt took me a day to get used to the new UI but now I love it - just goes to show that you’ll can only get UX wrong/UX is hard. It’s good to have both options configurable though!
- csomar 2y agoIt’s horrible. They also updated the iOS app and it’s buggy.
- infogulch 2y agoI like it! With the width and quick copy options under appearance settings there are no glaring issues, but there are two big benefits: 1. It's much faster. This alone makes the refresh worth it imo. 2. The edit item / fill item UX is much more consistent than it was. Before, when you search for and click a card it opens the item, but if you click a card because it matches the current domain then it fills the item, to open it instead you have to click the little "open item" button. Even as a long time user I would often misclick because the context changes the behavior of clicking a card and my muscle memory would be the opposite of what I wanted. Now there's a "Fill" button when a card matches the current domain and clicking anywhere else always opens the item. My only critique is that the Fill button could be a bit bigger to so it's easier to click.
- sunaookami 2y agoIt's awful, it's slow, it's hard to use, confusing and they made editing even worse. The old UI also had it's problems but they weren't this bad. I despise these constant UI changes that only make the product worse without any benefits.
- BozeWolf 2y agoIf you insert the password using bitwarden browser extension, then the totp token is under cmd-v. Even better. At least on safari.
- aceazzameen 2y agoIn full agreement the multiple clicks have been annoying. The old UX with multiple contextual buttons was better.
- brightball 2y agoThey are defaults. You can change it under the appearance menu.
- HaZeust 2y agoI hate how small the "Fill" button is, and how clicking on a card that represents saved credentials is no longer assumed as an intent to fill username/password on the page you're on.
- giancarlostoro 2y agoIn some cases, it just falls apart when displaying over a text box and doesn't know what to do with itself, and sometimes breaks the UI for me. I keep the desktop copy around for the cases where I don't want to fiddle with the extension.
- MrZander 2y agoI also hated this change, but there is a setting: Settings -> Autofill -> Click items to autofill in Vault view
- bubblethink 2y agoThe new extension is a lagfest. There's a noticeable 2s latency to every action now. I don't know how something like this makes it to GA. Long ticket: https://github.com/bitwarden/clients/issues/12286 https://github.com/bitwarden/clients/issues/12286
- boneitis 2y agoseems there are reports of different sorts of delays in the comments. w.r.t. a small, split-second one in initial rendering, i'd take it ten times out of ten over what it was for me all these years: immediate ability to key in input, but if you typed at the precisely (im)perfect moment, which was an extremely common occurrence, the extension would bug out and not perform the actual search. so i'm sitting there for about a whole second wasted for having waited out the threshold to realize that it bugged out yet again and didn't perform my search. then, i would have to either backspace or type in the next character in the query in order to trigger the search; this was often an unpleasant added mental overhead when backspacing would repopulate results that you were trying to filter out. i'd rather have the split-second delay for every initial render.
- mvdtnz 2y agoThe teeny tiny "Fill" button is the dumbest thing I have ever seen in a UI overhaul. A total misunderstanding of how their own product is used.
- xxkylexx 2y agoSettings < Autofill < Click items to autofill from Vault
- mvdtnz 2y agoOf course it's not under Settings -> Appearance where the similar "Show quick copy actions on vault" option is. Why should an option that only affects the UI be in "appearance".
- favorited 2y agoBecause it barely changes the appearance at all? The actual effect of that setting is to change the behavior of the button to be autofill. The only visual change is that the small "Fill" button is removed.
- mvdtnz 2y agoIt fundamentally changes the appearance of the UI, what are you talking about?
- favorited 2y agoThese are screenshots from the extension, before and after checking that autofill box. The only visual change is the missing "Fill" button, because now clicking on the item itself preforms the fill action. The rest of the UI looks exactly the same. https://imgur.com/a/ji3EAKw https://imgur.com/a/ji3EAKw
- J_Shelby_J 2y ago100% this is one of those changes that makes me doubtful of Bitwarden being a well maintained service in perpetuity. Like, if this change was an accident and slipped through that is bad. If it was approved, it's even worse because as you said, it shows that the person who is in charge of how we, the users, interact with the product day-to-day doesn't understand the product or doesn't take their role seriously.
- dml2135 2y agoNot a fan — it feels like an update just for its own sake, I struggle to think of anything that actually improved.
- coderintherye 2y agoIt's been much, much slower to load on click for me now. Surprised others haven't experienced that so wondering if it is some extension conflict. Consistently takes 2-3 seconds to load up after click whereas before was instant-ish.
- RockRobotRock 2y agoRelated question: is there any way to keep the Bitwarden window open when I’m unfocusing it without popping it out into a separate window? That workflow makes copying logins painfully slow for me.
- Yeroc 2y agoIt wouldn't be so bad if the window closed but at least remembered the entry. I often have the issue where I had to search up an entry (credit card info for example) and then when I reopen the extension window I have to start the search all over again.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- blackhaj7 2y agoAgreed. I keep clicking copy and thinking it copied when all it did was open the menu
- buro9 2y agoI hated it so much I migrated to ProtonPass, deleted my data, and set my account to expire. Then Proton CEO made some statements I found offensive, so I re-activated my Bitwarden account, migrated back, and am now learning to love the changes. The best I've got for tips are: 1. Settings > Appearance > Quick Copy 2. Settings > Appearance > Compact Mode 3. Settings > Appearance > Extension Width > Wide I still don't love it, but it remains the best of the bunch.
- teekert 2y agoI searched but for the life of me can’t find what “Fash” is, and boy am I curious (as somewhat of a Proton fanboi).
- zoul 2y agofascist
- Xiol32 2y agoFascist. I'm very surprised a search didn't turn this up for you, or you're not asking in good faith.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- teekert 2y agoI use ddg with country set to Netherlands, fash turns up many things, fascist is not among them.
- dude187 2y agoBut he's a Republican. Why would a Google search for "fash" clear that up?
- teekert 2y agoI just ddged for “fash”, I mean labeling the CEO of Proton no less, an org that does so much good, that has such a nice vision, can shield people from their state because they believe in their right to privacy. To label such a person a fascist is just unimaginable to me. I find it shocking that so many people just use this super small thing to judge Andy Yen. I’m really shocked. How dare these people put such opinions online? It’s so “140 chars” to define a person. It’s what’s wrong with the internet these days.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- t0bia_s 2y agoIm not a fan of copy button and design as well. Dark mode has huge contrast with outlines and rounded corners are space inefficient. It's like design for small touch screen, not a desktop addon to browser. Take inspiration at uBlock.
- INTPenis 2y agoI just started using it and my co-workers who have been using the old one say it sucks but I honestly have no opinion. It seems to do the job to me.
- pknomad 2y agoI don't personally like it but I suspect much of it had to do with me getting used to just clicking once and having to unlearn the habit.
- wruza 2y agoThe new desktop browser plugin is disgusting even after I went through settings. Won’t reiterate here, one of the worst UIs I’ve ever seen and if I were to choose today, I would not choose bitwarden only because how ugly and unusable it is. Bitwarden, return the normal UI back!
- gunalx 2y agoSame, new copy button just takes more time than previously. actually pretty anoying.
- moogly 2y agoEvery single change is for the worse. It's kind of insane how they managed to do that, actually.
- adamtulinius 2y agoHate it (using the Firefox one). The look is weird, seems to waste space. New copy button sucks. I spent 10 minutes one day not being able to login with a copied password, bit realising it was because I was lacking the second click. Also the new suggested results (when searching) honestly just gets in the way, since the order of the results are not always the same anymore.
- renewiltord 2y agoThis extension is the only thing on my computer that is slow. I have an M1 Pro and an M1 Max laptop and the new visual refresh has made the extension very slow and a lot less usable. The old one was instant on clicking the shield icon. The new one is slow and flashes a few times before showing me the UI. Also, the entire field used to be selectable to fill fields. Now I have to aim at the tiny Fill icon and it's even harder to get to the time-based 2FA code. I get why they've done it but I have never seen any software this slow in my life. Even just displaying the boxes seems like it needs a progress bar.
- serial_dev 2y agoIt's bad, it is no longer capable of filling out password fields, I need to copy it manually and then paste it.
- Wowfunhappy 2y agoYes, this is my issue too! The new UI is bad, but the bigger issue is it's just much worse at autofill!
- albybisy 2y agoalso 2FA with passkey into bitwarden website don't work with the extension. It can't find the passkey.
- nikanj 2y agoModern design: looks cleaner, is harder to use (more clicks)
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- crossroadsguy 2y agoThe day Bitwarden was VCed I knew there will be a time when I will be desperate to find alternatives. I guess that time is coming closer. The thing I despise most among their UI “improvements” is entry click expands the entry now. To fill you have to find that tiny “fill” button and click that.