Looks like the iOS app (when pulled in from a device) supports this. It won’t “enable” as it is not possible to enter the master password in the field that pops up.
All in all I think it would be a good idea to investigate whether it would make sense to properly port the iOS app to MacOS and offer it both “natively” and through catalyst, as there is a lot that can be reused from the iOS version. A few small bugs and it’s easily on par with the current electron x86_64 version.
Yep, similar functions across iOS + Big Sur in this regard. That’s how we would implement autotype on mac currently, at least as a first phase. It is in our backlog, though!
Just tried it out with Strongbox. It’s really nice. Not a must have - as you already have good browser integrations. But it’s useful it also works in non-browser apps.
Awesome to hear this feature is on the radar. Wondering if it’s moved further up the priority list since January? Asking in case Apple doesn’t make the necessary updates to make the Safari extension performant, per this thread. In that case, a macOS Password Autofill Extension would speed things up for Safari users.
With the release of MacOS Big Sur Apple now provides a fully integrated … System Preferences ‣ Extensions ‣ Password AutoFill ‣ Strongbox.
Any progress on this?
Sidenote: I changed “in Big Sur?” to “on MacOS” in the title.
BTW, “System-wide autofill in MacOS” is the “feature name” used in the original post here… isn’t this the same request as this Feature Request: 🔜 Auto-type/Autofill for logging into other desktop apps (Windows, MacOS, Linux) in the end ?? 
(the linked feature request also requests “system-wide autofill/auto-type”, though not only for MacOS but in general…)
I feel that these feature requests are not the same. There is a small distinction. A generic auto fill will be called from the password application itself. While the MacOS autofill extension is called from the application that is requesting the secrets. Natively this will be apple’s own password manager. But this can be changed to whatever application that integrates with MacOS. And this is not just for passwords, but also passkeys and codes as can be seen in this screenshot from MacOS Sequoia 15.5.
@SwerveShot Thanks for your explanation! But to be honest: my impression was - and still is - , that 🔜 Auto-type/Autofill for logging into other desktop apps (Windows, MacOS, Linux) and this request here both
(speaking only for MacOS now)
Or was your statement also, that 🔜 Auto-type/Autofill for logging into other desktop apps (Windows, MacOS, Linux) would ask for a system-wide autofill mechanism (on MacOS) that could be implemented differently than you described?
My intention was simply to point out that on macOS, there’s a specific mechanism for autofill/auto-type that works differently compared to other operating systems. As long as that distinction is clearly acknowledged in the other feature request as well, I agree that both use cases could be considered as asking for the same or a very similar solution.
Does that clarify things from my side?
@Nail1684
Like @SwerveShot mentioned, macOS provides an API that allows password managers to hook into the OS’s native autofill mechanism. It functions similarly to the implementation on iOS, that already works with Bitwarden.
The other feature request Auto-type/Autofill for logging into other desktop apps wants to achieve the same goal (auto-fill passwords not only into browser login-fields, but also into native desktop apps). The difference is, that macOS provides the mentioned API, while for Linux and Windows this would have to be done by some other, often hacky method.
Thanks @tomillr.
I now merged the feature request “Password Autofill Extensions on MacOS” with this one, as they requested the same thing (for MacOS). So that already was a “duplicate”, even though this feature request is also for Windows and Linux.
If it is not allowed by MacOS or is taking too long to get their support to make this happen, an interim feature that would meet us halfway would be to provide a mini dropdown on-click of the tray icon. The way I’d see this working is exactly as per the browser extension, on-click of the Bitwarden app icon in the desktop tray, a “Search vault” feature is provided and returns results that can be quickly copy/pasted into the active window on-screen. Right-click on the tray icon could allow access to open the full app window or configure it’s settings. It’s annoying having the Bitwarden window take focus away from what you are doing and this would make for a much more seemless experience even with lack of native OS integrations
Not working so far. 7/30/25
@ianderson the team is currently working on this feature, but it is not yet available. If you’re referring to something else, let me know.
This is 2025. Over 7 years later and we are still asking for this? I will have to look at other options for the next fiscal year. We just implemented this too. Frustrating.
Hi Ian, the team is looking forward to releasing desktop autotype, we’ll share updates as soon as it is available.
I am looking forward to it. In the meantime, I’ll will give Autohotkey a try under windows. With autohotkey you could write a script, which autotypes the clipboard:
For example Strg + ^
^^::
{
SendText A_Clipboard
}
Regards
Frank
Desktop Autotype is something different than using the MacOS API right?
Is that in the works as well? And if it is, is there a PR already to follow the progress?
Here another one waiting for this feature. Once you test it, you can’t live without it, it’s so useful.
Would be nice that when you add it, it doesn’t only let you type user and password but a combination of keys and events to be covered. Like for example:
-Type username,hit enter, wait 150ms, type password,hit enter, wait 150ms, type , type b, type c.
