You can finally unlock 1Password on your Mac using your Apple Watch and it's awesome

1password Watch Unlock (Image credit: iMore)

What you need to know

1Password 7.7 brings support for macOS Big Sur.
But more importantly, it lets you unlock the app using your Apple Watch.

1Password released version 7.7 of its Mac app yesterday, adding support for macOS Big Sur. But that's by far the least interesting part of this update because you can now, #finally, unlock 1Password using your Apple Watch.

Unlocking 1Password previously required entering your Master Password which, if you've created a good one, can take a fair few keystrokes. Anyone using a fancy new Mac with a super-duper Touch ID sensor can use that, sure. But that's no good to those of us using desktop Macs. Now, we just need to double-press our Apple Watch Side buttons, and away we go.

One of our most highly requested features, Apple Watch can now unlock 1Password on any Mac with a Secure Enclave. If you're using macOS 10.15 or later and using the latest devices, you'll now see an option in 1Password preferences to turn on Unlock with Apple Watch alongside the Touch ID option.After you set it up, you'll get a notification on your Apple Watch any time you open 1Password in macOS. Double click to unlock, and you're in.

I'm absolutely here for this and there are a ton of Macs supported. Anything with a T1 or T2 security chip is good to go.

There is, of course, more to 1Password 7.7. New inline password filling – just like 1Password X – is included for anything from your passwords to your credit card details.

When you're browsing in Safari and select a text field that 1Password supports – credit card forms, address and password fields, etc. – 1Password will now offer to fill it automatically. Select from the available options, and 1Password will do the rest.

Other changes include tighter integration with Privacy as well as a visual redesign. You can read all about it over on the 1Password blog, too.

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.