Let’s face it: Bitwarden may be one of thebest password managersout there, but it’s never been the prettiest. Its Android app is as barebones as it gets, with an outdated design that doesn’t follow the latestMaterial Youguidelines anymore. That’s about to change. Bitwarden has announced that it will soon launch a fully redesigned app for Android and iOS, based on native code that is accompanied by a much-needed facelift.
The announcement comes as part of aReddit postfrom a Bitwarden developer,spotted by Caschys Blog. In it, the company describes that it’s currently using Microsoft’s Xamarin framework, which allows it to create a single codebase for both Android and iOS. In the past, this approach made it possible to ship features faster, but eight years after adopting this approach, some roadblocks have popped up. For one, the developer admits that it “doesn’t ‘feel native’” and uses up more resources on devices than comparable solutions. Microsoft is also making some drastic changes to the framework, complete with a rebrand to MAUI, which “has been a subpar experience for us.”
Bitwarden rolls out passkey support, but only for its browser extension
Still waiting for passkey support on Android with bated breath
Thanks to more experience acquired by the development team, Bitwarden made the decision to transition away from the Microsoft framework in favor of native apps on both Android and iOS. This also allows Bitwarden to take advantage of new platform features much faster, like the recent introduction of passkeys on Android and iOS, which still aren’t supported by Bitwarden on mobile.
The new apps will feel more native to both Android and iOS, with design cues taken straight out of Google and Apple’s latest guidelines. To make the transition as painless as possible, the layout and user flow will remain largely the same — complete with the thumb-stretching exercise you need to do to reach the search button at the top. Bitwarden teases that it may update some of these existing experiences: “This may include things like redesigning certain screens entirely, optimization of critical user flows, and introducing onboarding walkthroughs for new users.”
The team expects that the new Bitwarden experience will be ready in a few months. Since Bitwarden wanted to support passkeys as soon as possible, the team developed an updated app based on Microsoft’s new MAUI framework as a stopgap solution. The developer describes it as a complete rewrite under the hood, though with that version, you won’t see any visual tweaks. It should be available shortly, with the company “nearing the completion of that project.”
Bitwarden is likely the single password manager to offer the most features in its free tier, along with a very affordable premium subscription at $10 a year that gives access to some advanced features. Seeing the company pour more resources into a polished experience on Android and iOS is great, even though there was never much to complain about from a reliability and security perspective with the current apps.
