Enpass has explained why its browser extension for Microsoft Edge will be remaining in beta for a while longer. While it was hoped that Enpass could release the extension officially with stable version 5.3, limitations in Microsoft's initial release of Edge extension support limit what the team can do in keeping your data secure.
According to Enpass, one of the big problems facing them is a lack of APIs that connect extensions to local Windows applications:
Since Enpass is an offline password manager, it requires some sort of local communication channel with the Edge extension to share data for autofilling. The connection is generally through localhost web-socket. Unfortunately, we don't have any official APIs to connect Edge extension with Enpass app installed on same machine.
While there have been workarounds, the method used by Enpass is discouraged by Microsoft, and Enpass isn't certain that Microsoft would allow the extension onto the Windows Store in its current state. The company is appealing to Microsoft to release APIs for communication between extension and universal (UWP) apps.
It's our humble request to Microsoft to provide an API to allow Edge extensions to communicate with a UWP App. We explored if we could use Application Services APIs, but those are not available yet for Edge extensions.
Developers can check out Enpass' request to Microsoft over on the MSDN forums. For now, the extension will remain a part of the Enpass beta releases, which will be updated regularly until the company can find a proper solution to the issue.
Thanks to @BrennanMcCullar for the tip!
