Firefox 93 for Android becomes system-wide password manager

The upcoming Firefox 93 web browser for Android may be used as a system-wide password manager by its users. Up until now, passwords saved in the browser were restricted for use in the browser. If you saved a Reddit or Amazon password in Firefox, you could open Reddit's or Amazon's website to sign-in automatically using the saved data.

What you could not do until now was launch the Reddit or Amazon application on the Android device and expect to be signed-in automatically. A password manager was required for that functionality.

Starting in Firefox 93 for Android, out on October 5, 2021, Firefox users may use the browser's password manager to sign-in to any application on the device.

If a password is saved in Firefox 93 or newer, Firefox users may select the account credentials to sign-in to an application on the device. For example: with Instagram credentials saved in Firefox, Firefox may suggest to use the saved credentials when a user opens the sign-in page in the Instagram application.

A small change in the browser's settings is required to enable the new functionality. Select the three-dots menu icon in Firefox and then Settings from the context menu. On the main Settings page, select Logins and password. Locate the "Autofill in other apps" option and toggle it so that it is set to on. Android displays a prompt to pick a compatible application for autofilling passwords on the device system-wide. Select Firefox and you are all set on the device.

Saved passwords may then be used to sign-in to applications on the device. The username field displays account suggestions and also an option to search Firefox; the latter is useful if the correct account was not selected by Firefox automatically.

With sync enabled in Firefox, Firefox will synchronize all user credentials to other Firefox installations, provided that the same account is used on these devices.

Firefox 93 includes a new option to save passwords manually. All it takes is to type the site URL, username and password, to save the credentials in the browser. These may then be used to sign-in on websites in Firefox, but also in applications on the Android device.

Select Menu > Settings > Logins and passwords > Saved logins, type the Android Pin, and use the new "add login" option on the page that opens to add a new site to Firefox's password manager manually.

Check out the full blog post on Mozilla's website.

Closing Words

Firefox is not the only Android browser that can act as a system-wide password manager. Chrome and Edge, among others, may also be set up to fill out passwords automatically on Android.

Firefox 93 for Android becomes system-wide password manager