Google is about to make it even easier to use passwords and make payments

Google has been in a strange place with autofill for some time. While Google has a comprehensive password manager that spans Android and Chrome, I've never found it as seamless as I might want it to be. That seems to be the focus of the latest update heading to your Google phone.

According to a report from 9to5Google, Gboard (the default keyboard on Pixel and my recommendation for all other Android phones too) is going to get a proper shortcut into autofill.

Currently, when you go to enter a password you might see a line across the top of the keyboard suggesting some of the passwords you have for that site or app. I've always found this to be hit and miss, with some apps never getting a suggestion and some working perfectly fine.

In the future, however, Gboard will ask you if you want to "Use Autofill with Google". This will make a shortcut available, which you can add to the top row of the keyboard. You can then tap that when you land on a site or app that you need autofill details for.

When you tap on the shortcut, you'll have the option to access passwords or payment details, so you can fill in the necessary and get on with your day. However, according to the details, it only shows passwords that are applicable to the property that you're currently trying to access, which won't help if, for example, if the login destination is slightly different.

This sometimes happens when a company changes how its login is structured, or if you saved the password when signing into the app and you're now trying to sign into the website, which might identify differently.

Although this should be a better way to force the issue, rather than relying on Gboard's current and slightly temperamental offering, the lack of wider searching means that if you can't find the credentials you want, you'll have to go back to the old method of manually searching and using copy-paste.

As for payment, I've found that generally Google Pay works very well, but there are some apps and websites where it just doesn't work and I still find myself manually plugging in the details (the desktop offering through Chrome seems to work much better). Having the option to force-fill payment details could make life a lot easier.

9to5Google reports that this new function is available in the Gboard beta, but it hasn't appeared on my device, so there could be some regional factors at play here too. It sounds promising, although there's no avoiding that autofill on Android is still a bit messy – hopefully, these changes will make the experience better.