Chrome Story

A newly added Chrome flag suggests that Google is working on a new and unified password manager for Chrome. The new password manager will be based on Google Mobile Services

Update: Google has renamed the flag to “Google Mobile Services for passwords”.

Google Mobile Services

Let us start with Google Mobile Services. According to the official website, GMS is “a collection of Google applications and APIs that help support functionality across devices. These apps work together seamlessly to ensure your device provides a great user experience right out of the box.”

GMS is a set of apps and APIs that you cannot get with the opensource version of Android. Anyone can download the source code and build an Android version. However, you will need a license agreement with Google to use apps and APIs part of Google Mobile Services.

Unified Password Manager

Now, let us move on to the news. I spotted a new Chrome flag in the Chromium Gerrit today:

Unified Password Manager: Uses Google Mobile Services to store and retrieve passwords. Warning: Highly experimental. May lead to loss of passwords and impact performance.

According to this flag, Google is preparing Chrome’s password manager to be part of GMS. With this change, password manaer will become a mainstream Google service that you will need a partnership with Google to include on your devices.

We will have to wait and see what other changes this move will bring forth. Will there be a dedicated password manager app on Android?

Summary

Google is finally taking password manager as a serious business. That’s what this looks like to me. Will there be premium security services tied to this new password manager in the future? That will be interesting for sure.

How will this change your relationship with Chrome? Let me know in the comments section.

Source: Chromium Gerrit.