Password manager app Lastpass and a few other apps like it will be transitioning from Android’s Accessibility API to the new Autofill API available in Android 8.0 (Oreo), with some help from Google. In a press release, LastPass stressed that there will be no immediate effect on its users, despite the app’s current use of the Accessibility API. The press release said that the Autofill version of the app is already available in the Beta channel for LastPass, but only for users running Oreo. Since there is no Autofill API in Oreo, it can be assumed that Google has granted LastPass temporary or perhaps even permanent permission to continue using the Accessibility API.
LastPass is apparently not the only one being granted a period of leniency. A new bit of text in Google’s Android Developer Blog post about the upcoming Autofill API specifies that LastPass is counted among peers 1Password, Dashlane, and Keeper among apps that Google is helping along with the transition, which likely means that the company is giving them similar leniency concerning the Accessibility API in order to avoid disrupting their services for users. Neither LastPass nor Google has stated when these apps will become incompatible with Android versions older than Oreo.
This all springs from a recent policy change by Google. Developers are no longer allowed to use Android’s Accessibility API in any way except helping disabled users to access and use their app. Despite the text of an adjacent blurb on the same page as the new policy, this includes helping users who are currently unable to use their devices as normal, such as users who are driving or tending to a baby, as well as helping users to navigate their device in general. Creative uses of the API include apps that do things like capture and intercept button presses, provide onscreen overlays, or otherwise access system-level privileges to provide user-facing effects that make a device more customizable or easier to use. Developers who use the API for any reason besides disability have one month from the announcement date to bring their apps into compliance, or face having them de-listed from the Play Store.