Keeping yourself secure online is of vital importance. This is equally true whether you are using your laptop, desktop, mobile phone or other connected device. Thankfully LastPass integrates very well with Android.
However, there is one very slight catch – if you want to use LastPass with Android then you will need to sign up to a premium account. It’s a little unfortunate that the firm has decided to do this, although everyone has to make a living. Since it only costs $1 per month (payable as a year in advance), however, it is not too expensive at all.
I’m going to assume for the purposes of this “how to” that you already have at least a free LastPass account. If not – go and sign up. You can easily import all your existing passwords from your browser. You might as well go straight for premium while you are at it.
Once you have signed yourself up for a premium account, the very next thing that you need to do is install the LastPass Android App.
When this is launched you will be asked for your LastPass credentials. It might be a good idea to check the “Remember Email” box. Do not, however, check the “Remember Password” box. This would mean that, if your phone was stolen, the thief would have access to all of your online services.
Once you have this app installed, you can use it to retrieve all of your login details. A very useful feature is the ability to copy your password to the clipboard and then paste it into password form fields. If you use the LastPass app in conjunction with something like Power Strip, then it becomes easy to access you LastPass credentials wherever you are in your system and whatever app you are currently running.
LastPass also integrates reasonably well into whatever browser you are using on your Android device. For most browsers, you will simply need to install the LastPass bookmarklets. This is most easily done by going into the menu of the LastPass app and selecting “More” before selecting “Install Bookmarklets”.
You can then simply select the appropriate bookmarklet from the bookmarks in your browser. You will need to be logged into LastPass in your browser, but the bookmarklet will prompt you to do that with a link which makes it nice and easy.
If you are running Dolphin Browser HD, then you have another option. LastPass provide an extension for the Dolphin Browser, which makes integration easy.
From within your browser session, you simply need to bring up the toolbar on the right and select the LastPass Icon to log in. Once you have done this, select the icon again to be presented with the various options appropriate to that site:
You can have LastPass auto fill any log in forms – or in fact any forms at all.
Now that you are all set up with LastPass on your Android device, you should be able to relax in the knowledge that you are now safe and secure in your online life – especially your Android based online life.
