How to configure the autocomplete tool on Android and iPhone

You just have to know how we have to configure it, so that we can always get the most out of it. In this way, we will not always have to remember the password that we put, the username, the number of our card, among other things. Greatly facilitating the use we make of the terminal. So we will explain the steps you must follow to have it activated, in addition to its advantages and disadvantages, since not everything will be good.

How to activate it

We already warned you that its activation is simple, so it will only take a minute or less to get it. On the other hand, configuring it may take us a little longer, although it will not be anything to write home about. And to make it even easier for you, you better not skip any of the steps that we will tell you next.

In addition, we will tell you how to get it on both an Android smartphone and an Apple phone. So that, in this way, you can have this tool enabled on your mobile, whatever its operating system.

on Android

Within Android smartphones, the one in charge of fulfilling this task by default will be the almighty Google. The autocomplete function on these mobiles comes directly within their settings, although we will depend largely on this company. If you don’t have it active yet, you’ll need to follow these steps before you can start viewing its settings:

1. Go into Settings.
2. Go to the System > Languages & input section.
3. Tap on the AutoFill Service feature > click the gear icon.
4. Turn on the switch for Use autocomplete with Google.

When you enable it for the first time, it will ask us to use a Google account. If we have not logged into any or do not have one, we must create it from scratch or give it the necessary permission to use it.

However, we can always use another password manager . The range of possibilities is very wide, so we can use the one that we believe best meets this objective. To see the different alternatives, go to the AutoComplete Service and click on it > Add service. Once done, it will send us directly to Google Play where it will show us the different options that we will have available.

Within the Google tool, we can store from personal information such as our name, gender, date of birth to email. And not only that, but we can add our address, different payment methods and passwords.

In addition, for greater security, if we click on the Autocomplete Preferences option, we can activate the following options:

• Authenticate with biometrics before filling out payment cards.
• Authenticate with biometrics before filling in passwords.

In this way, we will make sure that we ourselves are the ones who use this tool when paying online with our mobile or when we go to log in to a web page where we have an account.

on iPhone

In the case of Apple phones, the thing is much more simplified compared to the Android mobile tool. Within iOS we will not find the different options that offer us to directly add a postal address, our date of birth in any mobile app, although we can do it through Safari, as long as the web supports Autofill.

Although, we will have the possibility of using a payment method when we buy online, as well as the fact of saving usernames and passwords.

We’ll start with the option to automatically fill in credit card or contact data , as well as usernames and passwords from Safari:

1. Go to Settings and click on Safari.
2. Tap on the AutoFill option.
3. Turn on the Use Contact Data and Credit Cards options.

For the first option, we will have to configure a Contact with all our data from the phone book. And in the second case, we only have to add the card that we want to use to make online payments. It’s that simple.

But, if what we want is for our usernames and passwords to always be saved, we must follow these steps:

1. Access the iPhone Settings.
2. Go to the Passwords tab.
3. Access with your PIN or unlock method.
4. Tap on the ‘+’.

Then, the following will appear: Website, username and password. We will only have to fill in the data that we want the iPhone to remember to auto-complete this information in the app or website that we want. And when you want to use the function to automatically fill in a saved password, you must touch the field you want to fill in and click on the key icon that will take you directly to the tool that we have just configured. Once inside, you just have to choose the data you want to put.

Worth?

Now is the time to see all the benefits and drawbacks that this tool can have. Because no matter how useful it may seem to us in our day-to-day lives, it is clear that it also has some other inconvenience that you should know about before using it on your smartphone.

Its advantages

It is clear that its great advantage is the simple fact that we can forget forever about the passwords that we have stored on the mobile , as well as the data of our credit card or personal information. Even these tools already have the necessary security system to notify us if we should change the password of said account or not. So we would be facing another point in your favor. The same applies to texts, such as full name and addresses, since, if we change it, it will be kept updated, always asking us if we want to make said change.

drawbacks

However, as useful as it may seem to us, its most negative side is all the doubts that there are about this tool about its security. One of the biggest drawbacks that we can find is that we will have all our data stored on the phone. Also, if we no longer remember that password or username that we had stored, we will forget it forever if our phone is lost or stolen. Therefore, there are two aspects that we must always take into account before always using this autofill tool for Android and iPhone mobiles .