Use this Android feature to separate your work and personal life
Android has a nice built-in feature to separate your digital work life from your personal life. You can create separate profiles for work and home, isolate the two spaces, and switch between them as needed. This way you won’t get Slack notifications during dinner or family text chain notifications during your work hours. This will effectively turn your phone into two devices: one for work and for everything else. Let me show you how.
How Android Profiles Work
The Android “profiles” feature is similar to the “users” feature you see on Windows or macOS. Just as Windows lets you create multiple users, each with their own user space, accounts, settings, and app selection, you can also create multiple user profiles on Android.
And just like in Windows, you can also use profiles to manage shared access to a device like a tablet that everyone in the family shares. You can manage these multiple profiles yourself and create as many as you want (this feature requires a lot of resources, so if you configure too many profiles your device may slow down).
When you create a new profile, the phone will behave as it did when it was first started. Android will guide you through the setup process again, so you can sign in with a different Google account and even set up a different screen lock.
The phone in a new profile will launch as it did for the very first time, and if you want, you don’t even need to import contacts here. App data will not be synced even if you install the same app on both profiles. You will not see files and media from the personal profile in the work profile and vice versa. This means there’s no chance of accidentally sending a selfie to a Slack channel when you’re in the work profile. The same goes for notifications, which remain confined to their respective profiles.
There is absolutely no overlap with the personal profile aside from shared material. So once you leave a profile that you created just for work, you will no longer receive notifications from work.
A setup like this is also great for concentration. Your second profile could be a sort of distraction-free “focus” device, where you keep only the apps that are essential to your work and productivity. Over time, switching to the second profile will signal to your brain that it’s time to remove distractions and shift into work mode.
How to create a new profile
Every Android operating system since Android Lollipop (version 5) supports multiple users, but your phone may or may not have this feature. Manufacturers sometimes disable multi-user support. So even when the feature is available in the stock version of Android, it may not be available to you. For example, Samsung phones don’t let you create user profiles for separate use cases.
The quickest way to check if your phone supports multiple users is to open the settings app and search for “accounts”, “profile” or “users”. If nothing happens, open the Contacts or Dialer app, switch to the Contacts tab and tap the gear icon to open Settings. Here you should see an “Accounts” or “Users & Accounts” menu. Tap on it, then enable “Multiple Profiles”.
However, phones that don’t support user profiles often come with what’s called a “work profile.” This is different from the type of profile we’ve talked about so far, and it doesn’t replace our goals. The Professional Profile is entirely managed by your company’s IT department. They provide you with an ID or QR code and have full control over the data or applications hosted in the Professional Profile area.
This is where you can create a new profile for work.
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Tap “Create new profile”, give it a name and profile photo (optional).
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Then tap on it to switch to the new professional profile. Android will walk you through the setup process, the same one you typically go through when first powering on a new Android device.
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You can decide whether to sign in with a Google account, enable optional services, and set a password or PIN for the lock screen.
Once the setup is complete, you will be greeted with a new software experience ready to use. None of the apps you previously installed in the other profile will appear here. You can change preferences in the Settings app, set alarms that only work in this profile, enable Do Not Disturb, install new apps, and use them as you would on a dedicated work phone.
How to change profile
To switch profiles, find a profile icon in the notification area and tap it. There should be a profile switcher in this shortcut. If you don’t see a profile icon in the notification area, you will need to go back to switch to the administrator profile.
Open the Dialer app or Contacts app, go to the contacts list, tap the gear icon at the top, then tap “Accounts.” It may also be titled “Users and Accounts”.
Choose the desired profile from the list and wait for the change to complete. It’s sort of logging out and back in with a different user account on the desktop, so expect it to take a second.
What is and is not shared between profiles
System settings like Wi-Fi passwords and paired Bluetooth devices are shared between profiles, so you don’t need to connect to networks again and again. But everything else is segmented. This means that installed apps, stored files, photos, videos, or settings like alarms are not migrated when you create a new profile. You can see how much storage other profiles are using, but not what is stored.
There is also a toggle to separate calls and texts between devices. If you leave it disabled, you will not receive any calls in the second profile. However, this doesn’t really work. At least on the devices I tested, the phone rings when you receive a call in a secondary profile, but there’s no way to answer it. I suggest keeping it.
If your phone has a profile feature, you should definitely use it. Even if you don’t want a separate profile for work, you can use it to create a minimalist phone without buying one.
