Android just quietly took away your password manager's biggest advantage

Android now moves your passwords and passkeys straight from one password manager to another, with no file download in between. Google announced the new transfer experience today, and it already works across Google Password Manager, 1Password, Bitwarden and Dashlane, whether you carry a Pixel 11 Pro XL or one of the other best Android phones.

Passkeys can finally leave Google Password Manager

The announcement came from Google's own Android blog today, making the feature official.



The catch, for now, is the partner list. Both apps have to support the new standard, so a manager that has not implemented it yet will not turn up as an option when you go looking.

Why this quietly ends password manager lock-in

What kept most of us on a password manager was rarely the app itself, it was the cost of leaving. Passwords could at least be dragged out through an export file, while passkeys could not move at all, so switching meant deleting them and building new ones site by site.



Here is what happens underneath: your new manager asks for the import, then hands the job to Android, which detects the managers installed on your phone and brokers the exchange between them. Nothing gets written to an unencrypted text file sitting in your storage, which is how the old CSV route worked and why security folks disliked it.

The format and the handover are defined by the FIDO Alliance's Credential Exchange Protocol and Format, a pair of specifications written by the same companies that make these apps, so your credentials stay encrypted the whole way and you approve the move inside the app that currently holds them.

iPhone owners have had this for a while, since Apple shipped the same credential transfer in iOS 26 and macOS 26, and we found the groundwork for the Android version back in May. So today changes nothing for you directly if you are on iPhone, though it does make hopping between the two platforms less painful.

If you pay for 1Password, Bitwarden or Dashlane, your subscription now has to earn its renewal on features instead of on the hassle of leaving, and all three helped write the standard, which suggests they are comfortable competing on the merits.

Who should move their logins, and how

This matters most to anyone sitting on a pile of passkeys created inside one app, and Google's Help Center walkthrough covers the three steps if you want them on screen while you go.

Here's how to move your passwords and passkeys

1. Open the manager you want to switch to and choose the import option.
2. Let Android detect the managers on your phone, then pick the one holding your data.
3. Tap Continue, then review and authorize the transfer in your old manager.

Portability is the part I want everyone else to copy

I'm glad this exists and a little annoyed it took this long, because passkeys were sold to us as the safer replacement for passwords while quietly being the harder thing to take with you. However, four supported managers is only the start, and the ones still missing know who they are.

Hopefully the same standard turns up on desktop next, so none of this depends on which phone you happen to be holding.

More on Android 17 and your passkeys:

• We saw this passkey transfer coming back in May
• Everything new in Android 17
• Google Pixel 11 Pro XL

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