• General

  • User profiles vs work profiles vs private spaces

Hello,

I was wondering what your preferences are regarding the options in the title of this post. What are the pros and cons of each?

I understand the differences between a user and work profile, but I am unsure how private spaces differ from work profiles.

What do you use, and why?

My thoughts:

I might get a Pixel soon and was considering to use user profiles to separate my personal FOSS apps into the owner user profile. Here I would have the default apps, f-droid, Telegram, Proton apps, and a bunch of misc FOSS apps. Would it make sense to install microg here for notifications in case some of these need it? I would also use Aurora instead of Playstore. Does this approach make any sense?

I would then create one or more separate user profiles that use Google services. These would be for banking, occassional social media use, Google dependant apps, etc. Basically for stuff that is more invasive and/or closed source.

What do you think? 😃

19 days later
4 months later

Copying an answer from: https://crib.social/notice/ArxaIjecr1xLRPiJTU

There are 3 main kinds of profiles:

1) User (including Owner)
2) Private Space
3) Work profile

Each have their own apps, app data, profile data including a home directory, their own disk encryption keys and their own VPN configuration.

Private Spaces and work profiles are similar to a user but nested inside of another user for actually usage them.

Private Space is more similar to a user and is a user-facing feature and can have a custom lock method or reuse the one from the user.

Work profiles are created and managed by a profile management app. They're meant for bring your own device enterprise deployments. They can be used by end users via one of several local management apps for work profiles.

At the moment, a work profile and Private Space can only be created in Owner, and there can only be up to 1 of each. We want to support having a Private Space in each user and potentially multiple per user with a special UI for using the other ones in the future.

    taoeffect Copying an answer from: https://crib.social/notice/ArxaIjecr1xLRPiJTU

    See that thread for possibly additional info as well. E.g.:

    Oh, I think I get it, one reason to use a Work Profile would be to avoid having to create new settings and new accounts (e.g. in Google Play Store), but still somehow benefitting from isolation, is that right?

      Scroll down to be the bottom of this page and you'll see a table comparing the differences.

      For me personally, I prefer the work profile for keeping proprietary apps and Play Services separate from the owner profile. It's the least annoying way to keep these apps from separate, with the least "friction" in UX.