• General
  • More than 1 work profile possible?

  • [deleted]

Been using GOS on P6 for the past 6 months now. While I enjoy the implementation of multiple users and the security & privacy it offers - there's still quite a bit of friction for me to make use of it fully.

So I was wondering if there's any limitation to multiple 'work' profiles per user? Like why is it limited to only 1 Owner and 1 Work profile?

If there are no technological obstacles, is this a possible feature for either AOSP or GOS?

    [deleted] the one work profile limit is an AOSP one for the reason that a "work" profile in reality exists for corporate BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) programmes and intended to be used alongside a corporate device management app.

    Not many folks using it for the intended purpose would be doing BYOD for multiple jobs.

    You mention some 'friction' to just using multiple users for your use case, could you elaborate?

      • [deleted]

      Hi MetropleX ,

      The friction I experience is primarily needing to switch between users for frequently used, but "unsafe" apps (privacy-wise) such as Citymapper or Google Maps. In addition, if I'm listening to a podcast on my Main account, when I switch to use any other user - the podcast stops. I understand why this happens but being a multi-tasker, separating the "unsafe" apps to a different user just doesn't work for me. That's why the work profile route serves me well - it allows me to switch between apps and interact with both profiles at the same time. If you have any solutions to this, I'm all ears.

      I now understand the limitation. Is this something that can be easily reconfigured to extend beyond 1 work profile, because I think this could be a useful feature.

        [deleted] Have you considered you may have organized them incorrectly? If you're using "unsafe" apps consistently, then they're not really unsafe. Is there a reason your podcasts are separate?

        Profiles are easiest to manage when you think of them like aliases.

        For example; the main profile can be relatively bare-bones, as just a nice layer of security and stop-gap to your other profiles.

        Each additional profile should have all things related to one, maybe two emails.

        One profile for google/gmail circles.

        One for, say, proton mail or tutanota, or any non-ID-linked email 'identities.'

        One for socials (irrelevant if they're tied to one of your established emails, can just go in the appropriate profile).

        I strongly believe the average person overthinks their threat-model. If you like the convenience of a single profile, you can learn to better utilize disabling apps and managing permissions. Storage scopes and network permissions, nearby devices, etc.

        I'd suggest sitting down with some scratch paper and brainstorming your goals with multiple profiles. If you're stopping your podcasts to check gmail in another profile-- that's a bad use of work or user profiles.

        Switching a profile should be like stepping out of one house and into another. You shouldn't let yourself be running to the guest house for a bowl of cereal, so to speak.

          • [deleted]

          deign

          Thanks! To answer your question, I use AntennaPod which is "safe" in privacy terms, so it sits in my main profile. I listen to it while commuting mostly, but at the same time while commuting I need Citymapper or Google Maps (not logged in in either). So should I maybe even think about it as user profiles for particular times/activities? Does that make sense?

            [deleted] Of course! Another option would be to download your episodes with antennapod and then navigate to the storage location of the app and copy those audio files to a thumb drive-- and use them anywhere you have access to a media player.

            Alternatively-- export a backup of your exact preferred antennapod settings to the alternate profile and use them like you mentioned for different times and places/purposes.