DeletedUser124 I have Private Space to set only lock on device restart. But I still get prompted with fingerprint unlock almost every time and I try to open an app. Even if I use the app, go to homescreen and then try to re open that app, it asks for fingerprint again
You will have to authenticate with your Private Space credentials the first time you open an app after having locked your device. This is regardless of any settings, and is the same on stock PixelOS. Is this what you're seeing?
GrapheneOS We strongly recommend it as a replacement for a work profile managed by a local profile admin app. It has better OS integration and isolation.
as someone that has installed GOS on my pixel 8 a month ago but still haven't started using it as my daily driver due to hesitancy in setting it all up properly (profiles, etc.), I wonder what a typical profile set up be for an average user that wants to safely use some google services but keep things private from big social media profiling
should I put my gmail app in the private space feature, and maybe make a completely different profile for instagram, and a completely different profile for tiktok? or should I put my google apps like gmail in a profile and use the private space for something else? the options are all a bit confusing and causing me to procrastinate in finally using this phone as I want to set things up properly from the start (currently daily driving an iphone)
would be cool if some users did a tutorial of how they set up their profiles and private space as a daily driver, I'd watch that video if someone made it
rellhom to be completely honest with you: using services like Instagram, TikTok or GMail really doesn't benefit you in terms of privacy, at all. The first thing I did, is get rid of 95% of these giga-corpos on my phone. The point is, we don't really know how they are tracking us. We can make some good assumptions, but the full extent is hard to know with certainty. I can at least tell you how I set up my profiles for daily use:
Owner: all FOSS apps with the exception of GCam and GPhotos, network access removed, no Google Play in that profile.
Work profile (set up through Shelter): Google Play is installed, my commonly used closed source apps and FOSS apps I don't trust are in there (Telegram or Apple Music for example). Google Maps and Translate also live in that profile. Permissions are set to a minimum, my location is turned off system wide all of the time, except when I need to use it, e.g. for navigation.
Secondary profile: rarely used apps live in there, smart home stuff and shopping stuff like eBay or Amazon. Google Play is installed, but no network permissions, just for compatibility.
I haven't set up private space yet, but it will be probably be used to compartementalize my work profile in the near future.
rellhom the options are all a bit confusing and causing me to procrastinate in finally using this phone as I want to set things up properly from the start
I generally have found the following advice to be useful on this topic: https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/11814-google-play-in-main-profile/18
fid02 yeah I think that's exactly what's happening. So this is normal behavior, even after changing the private space auto lock option to "only after restart" (rough transition of the setting name because I don't use English on my phone)?
DeletedUser124 I have Private Space to set only lock on device restart. But I still get prompted with fingerprint unlock almost every time and I try to open an app. Even if I use the app, go to homescreen and then try to re open that app, it asks for fingerprint again.
Is that happening to anyone else?
This is because the private space is set to automatically lock itself every 5 minutes by default. Go to private space settings and set "Lock private space automatically" to: "Only after device restarts". You can lock the private space manually at any time. This way is behaves more like a work profile.
DeletedUser131 I already did this, but I still need to unlock the app with fingerprint after locking my device (even if it's just for 1 second) .
The weird thing is I remember it working just fine the first couple of hours.
I already tried restarting the device and toggled between the settings multiple times. :(
Just to clarify: my Private Space UI is not locked (I can see my installed apps in the app drawer). But when I try to open one of the private Space apps, I get prompted to unlock the app with fingerprint every time after locked my device
DeletedUser124 yeah I think that's exactly what's happening. So this is normal behavior, even after changing the private space auto lock option to "only after restart" (rough transition of the setting name because I don't use English on my phone)?
It's what occurs in stock PixelOS for me as well, so I have to assume that it's intended behaviour.
Can someone confirm what the security/privacy benefits of private space is vs user profile?
Integration / OS specific things which work better I don't care about.
Private space - Main profile can't see the installed apps
Is that the only benefit so far?
fid02 hmm okay. I hope the developers can change that behaviour one day, because it's kinda annoying to use that way :(
Protonuser Private space - Main profile can't see the installed apps
so this means the main profile CAN see all of the installed apps in all profiles?
rellhom I guess so. Apps from my other profile are listed in the owner as "not installed for current user" but they actually show up in the app list.
DeletedUser131 I noticed the same thing using Aurora Store. No popup asking for network permission when installing apps in background in private space.
Same here. But I used Aurora Store - not within Private space yet - to update Google Pixel Camera app on Android 15. At install time (with Android 14) I had rejected Network permission.
So why can Google Pixel Camera re-gain Network permission automatically on update, without my knowledge? From own experience, this might be a more general problem outside Private Space.
Protonuser Can someone confirm what the security/privacy benefits of private space is vs user profile?
There are no security or privacy benefits with private space compared to secondary user profiles. Secondary user profiles are the most isolated kind of profiles.
Private space is a convenience feature that offers similar security and privacy to a secondary user profile while being far more convenient to use.
For example, private space share clipboard with main profile, so apps in private space and main profile can see what is copy pasted in the other. This is one of, and in my opinion the biggest security and privacy tradeoff private space have done compared to secondary user profiles. Secondary user profiles have their own clipboard, so clipboard data cannot leak cross-profile.
But, private space is more secure and private than a work profile, while having similar convenience.
So secondary user profiles are the most secure and private, then private space, then work profiles.
I hope at some point this feature will be accessible outside of the launcher. I'm not lazy or closed to novelty but yet can't really imagine using anything else than Nova; it has defined the smartphone usage and everything I expect out of it for a decade.
But it turned into the shadow of itself, thanks to good ol' capitalism (company was bought and gutted). I expect the next update for 2026.
Canardo_Sanchez I too had used Nova Prime for over a decade. A couple months ago I switched to Lawnchair. Not quite as customizable as Nova but I forced myself to get used to it and after about a week I haven't looked back.
For everyone else, what launcher are y'all using to use private space? Are there any that work other than stock and pixel?
GrouchyGrape as of right now, I set up private space to have "spyware" apps that I don't use on a regular basis, but still need to live within the realm of the owner profile. I currently switch the launcher to stock whenever I need to access private space. A few years ago, there was an app called "no'me" which let you switch launchers easily, but it disappeared from the face of the earth some time ago. My main launcher is also Lawnchair, but even their nightly builds have no support for private space yet. I guess it will take a few months until it arrives, until then I (we) will have to live with this workaround.
GrouchyGrape worthy contender I would agree. As far as I remember I just missed the extensive gesture custom ability there.
Protonuser rellhom No, that's not an advantage of Private Space. Apps in the Owner user cannot see installed apps in other users or the Private Space. The Owner user themselves can see the overall installed apps. Private Space is not supposed to offer any privacy or security advantages over user profiles. The advantage it offers is that it's nested in the Owner user interface and therefore more convenient than switching users. User profiles offer some advantages through having an entirely separate user interface, but an isolated clipboard can be brought to Private Space as an option in GrapheneOS and is already being worked on.
Is there any way to install apps installed in the owner user into the private space?
