Private Space on Android 15 GrapheneOS

Not sure if the this problem I have is related to the Private Space but it could be, So I am asking here. I installed the sandboxed Google Play Store in the Private Space. Now for some reason, I don't have access to an app because it's "not available in your country". But the app should only be available in the country I am located right now. When I then checked the Play Store country settings as explained here it tells me
"Switch to the COUNTRY Play Store" where COUNTRY is the country I am currently in (I am not using a VPN and have not left the country in a long time) and when I click on it nothing happens. So the country is somehow not set to the correct one (or not set at all, I can't tell) and changing is not possible.
Is this a known issue? I've already restarted the device (Google Pixel 6a) and changed from mobile internet to WiFi but it still does not work. I did not have this issue when I used the Play Store outside the Private Space (it's only installed now in the Private Space, nowhere else).

So can someone who has the Play Store installed in the Private Space click on "Country and Profiles" or "Switch to the YOUR-COUNTRY Play Store" or is it also disabled for you?

relaxed_shtern So the country is somehow not set to the correct one (or not set at all, I can't tell) and changing is not possible.

According to the help article you linked to, it looks like you can only change your country once a year. It sounds like you haven't done that recently, but maybe it's a new account and they won't let you change your country too soon after creating the account?

I have done this once before. Looking at the help article, I remember it wasn't easy to change my country either. You have to add a payment option for the country you want to change to before you can finish changing the country. If you are having issues with that, you might need to contact Google's customer support.

GrapheneOS

Not wanting to open a discussion here, but work profile works without a management app afaik.

An app like shelter allows to install apps to another profile, which can also be used to update them locally. This does not exist with work profiles.

Apart from that, work profile apps are integrated better. They have a normal app drawer placement, they can be added to the homescreen. They use the share portal as private space, using the app share2storage you can share files.

There is a quicksettings widget to turn them off, this doesnt exist for the private space.

Calling the OS integration better is a @bold hypothesis

missing-root I am waiting with moving from work profile to private space too. Its not about graphene os, i understand the feature arrived in android 15 and who knows how it will be improved further in general android....

for me it's not about private or not, i need a simple button to make a subset of apps to shut up in the evening, nothing more. If it could be sheduled, even better.

andrej567 tbh this could be implemented if the "disable user apps" feature was adapted to still show the app icons on the drawer and home screen.

Or if apps could have a mode where they really only spawn if you click on them, and immediately close when they are not in foreground.

https://github.com/GrapheneOS/os-issue-tracker/issues/4429

missing-root Not wanting to open a discussion here, but work profile works without a management app afaik.

An app like shelter allows to install apps to another profile ...

Shelter is a device management app. That is why work profiles works if you have Shelter. Work profiles need a device management app, it is impossible to create or manage them otherwise.

ryrona the point is you dont need that "management". You can share files there with the share portal, configure settings in the settings app and toggle it on or off in the app drawer.

You can remove shelter after setting the profile up. It still works, I did that on my old phone.

lordiont

I flashed my phone to use the stock Android. I couldn't find the Private Space feature. So I talked to the Google support. Here is the answer. The Pixel engineering team decided to remove the Private Space feature. As of now, no Pixel device using Android 14 and higher supports it, you reinstall your device, you lose the feature. I'm not sure what happens if you had activated and then update your device. They don't want to give any explanation, they can't provide an ETA for an update on this. I wasn't even given the answer to "are they working on re-enabling it".
Maybe related?

cybermattic interesting, if true i would be interested in the motivation behind this decission.

GrapheneOS
Kudos - as always, of inestimable value these AOSP-additions are.
But there's one anti-feature for my personal use case currently:
I can't use private space in secondary profile(s).
If authorities force me to unlock my phone, they will get a complete fake identity - and since it's a company phone, the other profiles are staff profiles officially. So no leak of privacy. But unfortunately no private space either.
I'd love having the option to merge two of my profiles into one (w/ private space), but in my case this mustn't be id0.
It is sufficient for me to have one private space per phone, but it must be possible to run it in any secondary profile.
Is it technically possible to shift the parent profile for private space? Or to even allow multiple private spaces?

GrapheneOS im not managing to create a work profile. How do I do it? It's not in the settings for me for some reason

de0u Maybe they meant from 14 excluded. But I ranted and (@r134a) tried with multiple approaches to get the reason why this decision, no luck. Long story short, I'm leaning toward getting rid off my Pixel 8, got a refund agreement. The customers accept too much bs from the companies nowadays. To me Pixel is no more than a test Android platform, I can't call that production ready. It's a fantastic hardware hosting a pile of 💩 on its application layer, either because of their Google mindset or because the third-party apps act with poor conscience (Revolut lately).

matchboxbananasynergy

This button is still visible there the first time you make a private space, it still ended up being confusing as a first time user because it didn't do anything :P

cybermattic I flashed my phone to use the stock Android. I couldn't find the Private Space feature. So I talked to the Google support. Here is the answer. The Pixel engineering team decided to remove the Private Space feature.

That's not true. I flashed stock PixelOS Android 15 February 2025 patch on my Pixel 8 a few days ago, and the feature was there. It was also only introduced in Android 15. The Google support employee either didn't know what they're talking about, or you misunderstood what they were saying.

You probably flashed Android 14. Do a check for system updates.

[deleted] I just created the Private Space today and I have the same issue with build 2025021100 on Pixel 6. Every time the Private Space is unlocked all but the lower 5 GOS apps (Files, Gallery, Info, PDF Vie..., Vanadium) are invisible. Also the settings button is missing and the Lock button is only the icon (does not include the word Lock). If I enable and disable Hide Private Space... while it's unlocked, the apps become visible, the settings button returns and the lock button says Lock.

gergb1970 Do u have animations disabled by any chance?

r134a Yes, I did. Thank you. Enabling it fixes that but slows interactions with the device such as unlocking the screen, opening apps, the auto closing of the recent items screen and locking the screen :(

gergb1970 Disabling animations unfortunatly comes with some bugs attached. It is a known upstream bug, and probably needs to be adressed by google developers at AOSP level.

kwikk Also have this setup (owner for app install only) and would welcome Private Space support in non-owner profiles.
@GrapheneOS would this be considered for the roadmap?