🎊 Lightning Autofill v12.0.0 released 🎉

After 118 commits over three months, countless improvements, refactoring and bug fixes, Lightning Autofill version 12 has finally been released! It may not look like it on the outside, but underneath this is the biggest release since version 1.0. Let’s go over the major changes:

  • Migrated to Manifest V3 (MV3). MV2 extensions will be deprecated this June, so this move was unavoidable. Upgrading to MV3 was a royal pain, but it also makes extensions more secure and future-proof. Unfortunately, Mozilla’s MV3 implementation is too different from Google’s, so Firefox continues to exist as an MV2 add-on until it reaches full MV3 feature parity with Chrome/Edge extensions.
  • Switched to freemium model. I anticipate this to be an unpopular change after 14 years of being completely free, but it was a necessary change for the continued survival of Lightning Autofill. I’ve had opportunities to sell this extension in the past, but I read about what can happen to users after an extension is sold (exhibit A, exhibit B, exhibit C), and didn’t want to put you guys at risk, so here we are.
  • Implemented cloud sync. You can now manage your autofill rules in Google Sheets, which opens up a world of possibilities. I’ve been meaning to add this feature for years since I manage so much data in Sheets already, and I also automate a lot of workflows with Google Apps Script. Unfortunately, there’s no way for Google Sheets to communicate with extensions right now, so when you make an edit in Sheets you have to click on the Restore button from Lightning Autofill Options to pull in the changes. Changes in Lightning Autofill are automatically synced to Sheets though.
  • Added support for autocomplete attribute. This was a small change with big implications. Since this attribute has become so prevalent, you now have the capability to create more reliable global address rules. In fact, Lightning Autofill v12 comes with sample address rules that you can modify for your own needs. For existing users who are updating to v12, you can import the address rules using remote import from this URL: https://pastebin.com/raw/Rk42q0cv (NOTE: remember to choose the “Append” option or these rules will overwrite your existing rules).
  • You can see the full list of changes in the changelog.

Since so much of the code was rewritten, and the extension migrated from MV2 to MV3, I expect the review process to be longer than usual, possibly over a week, so hang on tight. I’ll post another announcement when it’s published and starts rolling out to Chrome, Edge, and Firefox.

How to activate your plan

Once Lightning Autofill has been updated to v12, you will see a new Subscription section in Options → Settings:

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This is where you enter the invoice number to activate your subscription plan.

Bye bye, Wallu

After monitoring the #ask-ai channel on Discord for awhile, it’s clear that the CommunityOne bot gives consistently better quality responses than Wallu AI. Hence, I will give Wallu early retirement and keep only CommunityOne in the channel. Having two bots answer at the same time can be confusing as well, so this is a good change.

Hello, LightningAutofillPro

Even though we have the #ask-ai channel, the best helpdesk chatbot is actually the one I trained on Poe: LightningAutofillPro. I recommend everyone consult with LightningAutofillPro for the following reasons:

  • It’s private. Everybody can see what you ask in the #ask-ai channel, so if you want to ask about something personal or confidential, then ask LightningAutofillPro.
  • It’s based on a newer, better LLM. CommunityOne is powered by GPT-3.5. LightningAutofillPro is powered by Claude-3, which is generally better across the board.
  • Your chat sessions are saved. Once you register for a free account, you will have a history of everything that you ever asked LightningAutofillPro.
  • You can bookmark it. No need to be logged into Discord.