Multiple user accounts coming soon to Android smartphones, will no longer be exclusive to tablets
A little over a year ago, Google took the wraps off of Android 4.3 Jelly Bean and we were pleased to a few new smaller additions making their way into the update. One of the ones we were most excited about was the introduction of multiple user accounts with restricted profiles. This allowed users to set up their Android device with a main account, restricting apps or other usage for secondary accounts on the device (perfect for those of us with kids). There was only one problem: this was exclusively an Android tablet feature, leaving smartphone users out in the cold.
Here we are, quite a few Android updates later and it seems someone at Google has been listening. In a response to a user requesting multiple user accounts make their way to Android smartphones (issue 1017), a Google Project Member chimed in a few hours ago mentioning that the feature will indeed arrive in a future Android update, officially closing the issue. Success!
Unfortunately, the Googler failed to mention whether or not they were talking about a smaller maintenance release, or something a little bigger like Android L. In either case, you can rest assured knowing that multiple user accounts will be soon come baked into Android smartphones — you just gotta wait a bit longer. Let’s hope they figured out a way to make it similar to Apple’s family sharing feature in iOS 8.