1Password has an Apple silicon beta you can download and use right now

Yosemite 1Password on MacBook Pro (Image credit: iMore)

What you need to know

There's a 1Password beta ready and waiting for M1 Mac owners.

Popular password manager 1Password has a new beta out complete with support for Apple silicon. Anyone running an M1-powered Mac can go and download the new beta right now.

The announcement came via blog post earlier this week with founder Dave Teare saying that you can look forward to using 1Password on your new M1 Mac – even if you don't want to resort to running a beta version. Rosetta 2 does a fine job emulating x86, it turns out.

My heart sank a little as hardware emulation is often slow. Upon launching, however, I was surprised to find 1Password launched as fast as ever. This was an incredible delight for sure. Apple really hit the mark here and the developer in me is very thankful they made this transition so smooth.

The blog post also includes a video of 1Password running as a universal app on a 13-inch MacBook Pro. It's fair to say the performance is nothing short of snappy!

The very best experience will clearly be had by those running Apple silicon and the beta, but it's good to know that those running the production releases will continue to see the performance they've come to expect over the years.

Right now Apple only sells three Macs with Apple silicon inside, but that's going to change pretty quickly. Developers like those at 1Password are already working to get ahead of the game and so far, so good.

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.