New Full-Featured Password Manager, Keyboard with Dictation, and Native QR Code Detection
UP Phone is achieving new levels of polish and ease of use
We are thrilled to announce that Unplugged is rolling out a significant update to the UP Phone firmware. The update is in flight, and we are thankful for our opt-in beta testers who have been busy putting the new features through their paces.
We make regular updates to the firmware. Some patch security holes or fix bugs. This update is bigger and deserves special mention.
With each passing week, UP Phone is fast becoming a real contender–not just as the most private smartphone on the consumer market–but as an ultra-capable, thoughtfully designed, everyday driver packed with features.
You don’t have to sacrifice ease of use and simplicity to enjoy superior digital privacy on UP Phone.
In addition to a long list of other updates and small fixes, our newest firmware update includes THREE BIG RELEASES, which we believe our customers are going to love.
Limitless Logins
The biggest update is the release of the new Password Manager - “Passwords”.
Passwords and keys for all the things.
This app securely stores your passwords, credit cards, online identities and two-factor authentication codes all in one slick open-source app. As with UnpluggedOS and Firewall (and many other components), we will be open sourcing the code for Passwords in the coming weeks. The app has a handy import feature to migrate passwords from an iOS phone or another Google-based Android device. The step-by-step instructions are clear and simple.
You can name each password, associate it with a username, a 2-factor authenticator key and optional notes. More advanced users can use URI (Uniform Resource Identifiers) or Base32 secret keys. Need a quick password? The app also provides randomized password generation.
Other features include Cloud Sync to share your passwords between devices and granular autofill protection to require authentication before autofill initiates. For instance, you can require PIN authentication for credit card data to autofill while choosing the lower friction option of having passwords for website account logins populate without authentication. You decide.
A smartphone is a window to apps and the mobile internet. Now you can slide into your favorite apps and websites effortlessly and login to accounts and personalized experiences with on-device security and minimal set-up. It’s another essential addition to Unplugged’s freedom-first, complete hardware and software solution.
Type or Talk
Next, and this flows from popular customer demand, we’ve upgraded to a new, more responsive on-device keyboard. Supporting dozens of languages, this keyboard is snappy, better looking, ergonomic and smooth. It's also open source. (I'm sensing a theme.) It includes on-device private dictation with fast speech-to-text. Most importantly, audio stays local and does not go to the cloud.
Our new open source Keyboard with local dictation is insanely great.
When we make engineering and user experience choices like this new keyboard, we raise the privacy standards.
Granted, keyboard software, for some customers, is often a matter of preference. There are multiple other options in the App Center for those who are looking for special features or a different look and feel.
Scan, Click and Go
Last, but not least, we’ve updated the camera app with built-in QR code recognition. UP Phone customers, who have been with us since mid-summer, will remember that we released a brand-new camera interface to maximize the powerful rear triple-camera system; to take advantage of UP Phone’s top-flight sensor technology; and to take better pictures!
Now, camera functionality is improved. The new QR code detector is simple and elegant with quick sharing and copy/paste. It supports both static and dynamic QR code technology and ultra-fast page loading in the default Brave browser or browser of your choice.
Simple and slick: scan, open, copy or share.
Enjoy!
UP Phone users across our internal team and beta testers are loving these new features and upgraded experience. We hope you will too.