Password management on Android phones: Why choose Proton Pass?

Entering a lengthy password on your phone is very cumbersome, which is why I chose to use the Proton Pass Android Pass Manager. There are many Android password managers on the market, why choose this one? As a skeptical person about business technology, the answer is only one word: trust.

I trust my password to be truly secure

Password managers simplify tedious online life, but we must also trust these managers to keep our "digital kingdom keys." They hold the passwords for all our online activities: emails, social media accounts, streaming platforms, medical files, cloud backups, photos and more.

Password managers themselves have also become targets of attacks, and some managers have experienced data breaches. Fortunately, most managers use end-to-end encryption. Even if the data is stolen, nothing can be viewed without the decryption key.

This encryption means that even the developers of Proton Pass cannot access the data. This is especially important. A vulnerability in iCloud in 2024 re-displays photos that people think have been deleted for years, suggesting we can't believe that unencrypted data is actually deleted just because the system shows it has been deleted.

Proton has earned me trust over the years with his history and transparency on his blog, where they explain some technical and legal decisions. Not only that, Proton Pass is open source and has been audited by third-party (see this blog post for details). This means I don't have to rely on Proton's words to trust it.

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One of the attractions of password managers is that they don’t need to manually enter their passwords. At least, you can now copy and paste your password when you need to log in. This method is simple, but it will put the credentials in the clipboard and are easily accessible. This is not the safest way (although I still do it).

Fortunately, Proton Pass can also detect that you are trying to log into a website and actively provide input credentials. Proton Pass is displayed as an option above the keyboard, along with your text predictions.

If you use this autofill feature, Pass will enter your credentials on your behalf after authenticating by entering your master password or scanning your fingerprint.

In my experience, Pass doesn't always appear when I need to log into a website or an app, but when it comes out, the app does a consistently excellent job of distinguishing between username and password fields.

I can create an email alias

A large part of what Proton Pass attracts me has nothing to do with passwords. In fact, Pass can generate email aliases for any of your accounts. Whenever you register a new website, you can not only generate a random password, but also provide a randomly generated email address.

Any email sent to that address will still be forwarded to your regular email account. If you reply, the recipient will see that these messages are from your alias without knowing what your real email address is.

This option is not foolproof. Some sites block domain names associated with email alias, requiring you to register with your actual email account. This is an understandable anti-spam measure, but it is also frustrating. Still, most websites and apps accept my alias.

As someone who is very concerned about data privacy, I used Linux for many years and carried a minimalist phone with no app store access, the email alias solves a big part of why I am now able to use my smartphone comfortably again and install so many apps. While I don't naively think other fingerprinting methods don't exist, I like to be able to stay anonymous in at least that way.

I like the Proton ecosystem

I find the Proton Pass particularly easy to use, partly because I've been immersed in the Proton ecosystem. I've been using ProtonMail as my primary email account for years. My wife and I use Proton Calendar for a long time to share our schedule. When I need a VPN, I turn to Proton VPN. If you want to get rid of Google, Proton offers the easiest way to do it.

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Since my wife also uses Proton, by adopting Pass, we don't have to create a bunch of extra accounts to share passwords. We can simply purchase a shared Proton plan to provide access to both of our accounts. Sharing passwords has been my to-do for years. As a couple, especially as parents, some accounts exist only in the name of one of us and the other should be able to access it. Now we have done it.

I ended up choosing Proton Pass because I wanted an easy and trustworthy way to share my password with my wife. Otherwise, I'd be happy to continue using KeePassDX. It only saves passwords locally, completely eliminating concerns about online data breaches. It's also completely free. But I must admit that I am very satisfied with this switch.

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