Password Safe (Full, $2.49) from Rhythm Software
Password Safe
This is a review of Password Safe 1.5.0, from Rhythm Software, which currently costs $2.49 in the Android Marketplace. Not free, but reasonably cheap, nobody is going broke buying this one. I should probably note that there is also a similarly named Android Password Safe which appears to be a SourceForge variant, different app. I will continue to use eWallet as the kind of base standard, even though it's not yet available on Android, but it represents a mature, full function application, and until something better comes along, gives the competition something to shoot for (and the competition, including Password Safe, is getting closer). Testing was on a Moto Droid Android 2.0.
Screen shots from Androlib:
and Androlib link, for more reviews:
Password Safe v1.4.1 Application for Android | Tools
I never could find the developer (Rhythm Software) web site, but the email contact is:
hexise@gmail.com
Password Safe lets you create basically one level of folders, there's nothing much predefined, but the process is pretty easy, you just create a folder, and it puts it on the entry screen, sorted, so pretty easy to deal with. I could not seem to get it to create two levels of folder, so you cannot really do anything where you have a hierarchy, personal/business sort of thing (as in Windoze or eWallet), but not a major thing, really, you could use extended names (example: Personal Credit Cards | Business Credit Cards) and because of the sorting, it would amount to something similar.
Items are added at the base screen (you pick the folder or category as part of the item creation process), and you can choose a template to start. The pre-built-in templates included:
- Bank Account
- Car Info
- Credit Card
- Email Account
- Emergency Number
- Passport Info
- Password
- Software Info
- Web Site
So not a bad start, but it's missing a lot of what eWallet and some of the others have defined already (examples: Socrial Security Number, Driver License Info, etc., etc.). Once you select one of the templates, it shows a prompt screen, with edit fields and so forth. You punch in the data, hit the save, and you're done.
I guess I should note one really kind of annoying thing, at least for someone writing a review
, as of 1.5.0, Rhythm Software added automatic locking after 60 seconds. While that's probably not a bad feature, if you're really concerned about security, if you set the phone down for a bit, or go off and type something in, it's going to have locked on you. So I don't mind the feature, but it would be nice to either:
- Be able to turn it off as a user controlled option, or...
- At Least be able to set the interval higher than a minute
There is a reasonable starter list of templates, entry field patterns, although not as extensive as some of the competition, but probably more importantly, you can create your own template. Basically the template consists of fields, there are two types:
And so with a text field, you can pretty much do what you want, in terms of entry. The text field allows multiple lines (return), so you can go extended there, using it for notes. Probably could have used a number field (some of the competition does that, avoids you having to go to Alt- to enter in numbers on the Droid keyboard, but kind of a minor thing. Fields get added to the end of the template, but there appears to be no way to move them up or down in order, so that's a deficiency as versus some of the competition.
You are asked early on while inputting a Password Record (entry), which Category you want to put it in, right after the Title, and when you go back in to edit it, you can change the Category, so you can effectively move things between folders.
One thing I particularly liked about Password Safe is that when it displays an item, it does so in a smaller font, so you get more on the screen. Frequently, Android Apps in this category use the same entry and display screens, which is probably simpler to code, but you need bigger fields for entry than you do for display, so here Password Safe is ahead.
If I had to characterize
Password Safe, it gets the task done. I liked the way things were organized, things are well thought out and everything "works". I saw no force closes, and I did my standard rotate the screen and various other things that caused other Apps to have problems. And with the templates, and the ability to add or modify them, it's more extensible then some of the competition. In terms of the competition,
Seforms-lite is free and has much of the same level of functionality (including template structure), and
B-Folders has slight ease-of-use advantages, here and there, but
Password Safe is not all that expensive, and had some niceties here and there. It probably is better than
WalletPro, but it's not a straightforward comparison, I liked the folders and the way that all worked, some might prefer WalletPro's tagging. But anyway, Password Safe is well worth considering. It's somewhat basic, but extensible, and it organizes and displays items very nicely.
Pros:
- GUI is pretty easy to use, good appearance, etc.
- One Level of Folders for Organization
- Basic templates are there already
- Fairly extensive set of icons (60ish) to graphically tag folders
- Templates are modifiable and extensible
- Display view of a password item was very nice
- Has a back button arrow in many of the navigation places, which is nice, you're not worried about the main back button sending you out of the App
Cons:
- Only one level of folders in hierarchy
- Templates not as extensive as some of the competition
- Autolock nice, but needs to be user configurable (turn-off, duration, etc.)
- This must be an Android thing, as I've seen it a lot, but wants to set Credit card dates to yyyy-dd-mm, whereas my credit cards mostly are yyyy-mm (no day)
- Some of the password managers have a "Show" function for password entry, which would be nice here
- I could not find a way to move around fields in a template (up/down) so that the more frequently used ones are on top
- Credit Card template is missing an entry for contact phone number (pretty standard, if lost contact ....), but this is pretty easily added manually
- Not as extensive set of templates to begin with as some of the competition
