You may soon use multiple accounts on Android 14 for apps and services
Google engineers are testing a new Android 14 feature currently that allows users to use multiple accounts for apps and services. Called Clone Apps, it may be used to sign-in to apps using a second account.
Currently, Android users may sign-in using a single account in apps that they install on their devices. If multiple accounts are available, it either means switching accounts regularly, or using other means, such as signing-in using web browsers and web services. Some apps may support multiple accounts, but the majority do not, and there are third-party apps available that promise to clone apps already. Some manufacturers support app cloning as well.
XDA discovered the Clone Apps feature of Android 14. Unlike third-party solutions, this is a native implementation that promises to be more stable and problematic than these other solutions.
Android 14 users may see the new Cloned Apps menu under Settings > Apps on their devices. Note that Android 14 is in development, and that some features that are in testing currently may be pulled before the final reason.
The screenshot provided by XDA shows just three apps, Discord, Facebook and Telegram, which the author of the article had to enable using developer commands.
When users select the clone option for the first time, Android creates a cloned user profile in the background. This clone of the user profile is used to store application clones to separate them and their data from the main Android user profile.
All cloned apps need to be set up, as Android handles them like new application installs on the device. Cloned apps may be deleted at any time if they are no longer required.
XDA notes that the cloning of user profiles was introduced in Android 12, but that the feature could not be accessed directly on Android devices. Users had to run ADB commands to create a cloned profile and install apps using that profile.
Cloned apps are not differentiated currently by Android on the home screen or in launchers. Icons are identical, and there is a good chance that users launch the wrong app regularly. One way around this, at least until Google decides to create a distinguishing feature, is to sort them accordingly on the device.
Also, worth noting, is that the clone apps feature is not enabled by default in Android 14 test builds. It needs to be enabled using developer commands before it becomes available.
Closing Words
App cloning is a useful feature for Android users who want to run apps using multiple accounts on their devices. Think of a private and business account that need to be separated better. Native integration in Android will improve stability and reliability of the feature, and also limit other potential issues.
App cloning, for users, also means that they can better separate different accounts on the same Android device. It remains to be seen if app cloning will find its way into Android 14.
Now You: would you clone apps on your mobile devices?
Thanks for the tip Martin.
It is for these kinds of posts that I follow GHacks.
What’s up with the generic comment, are you a bot?
2G?
Where on the planet is that still in use? I was forced to give up using my RAZRV3 years ago because 2G was phased out by AT&T.
Everywhere 3G has been turned off and you don’t have LTE coverage, and believe me there are many developed countries where this is the case and if it weren’t for 2G you wouldn’t even be able to make a phone call.
Maybe I missed it, but I don’t believe tha term “2G” is in the article. Perhaps you are referring to “AGM G2”??
@Martin
Your website has gone insane.
When I the post button I then saw my comment posted on a different article page. When I opened this article again, it is here.
@Tachy @Martin Brinkmann
” Your website has gone insane. ”
Same here. Has happened several times.
@Tachy,
@Martin P.,
For over two weeks now,
I’ve been seeing “Comments” posted by subscribers appearing in different, unrelated articles.
https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572991
https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572951
For the time being,
it would be better to specify the “article name and URL” at the beginning of the post.
@tachy a lot of non-phone devices with a sim in them rely on 2G, at least here in europe.
Usually things reporting usage or errors/alarms on something remote that does not get day to day inspection in person. They are out there in vast numbers doing important work. Reliable, good range. The low datarate is no problem at all in those cases.
3G is gone or on its last legs everywhere, but this stuff still has too much use to cancel.
Anyhow, interesting that they would put that in. I can see the point if you suspect a hostile 2G environment (amateur eavesdroppers with laptop, ranging up to professional grade MITM fake towers while “strangely” not getting the stronger crypto voip 4G because it is being jammed, and back down to something as old ‘stingray’ devices fallen into the wrong hands).
But does this also mean that they have handled and rolled out a fix for that nasty 4G ‘pwn by broadcast’ problem you reported earlier this year? I had 4G disabled due to that, on the off chance that some of the local criminals would buy some cheap chinese gear, download a working exploit and probe every phone in range all over town in the hope of getting into phones of the police.
>”While most may never be attacked in stingrays, it is still recommended to disable 2G cellular connections, especially since it does not have any downsides.”
The downside would be losing connectivity. I spend a lot of time way out in the countryside where there’s often no service or almost none. My network allows 2G, and I need it sometimes. I have an option on the phone to disable 2G, I may do that when I’m in the city and I have good 5G connectivity, but not out in the country.
I would imagine that the stingray exploits, like most of the bad things in this world, are probably things you will run into in the crowded big cities.
I stopped using it in a mobile (Wi-Fi line) environment, so I’m almost ignorant of the actual situation,
But the recent reality in Japan makes me realize that “the infrastructure of the web is nothing more than a papier-mâché fiction”.
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/17/google-chrome-to-enable-https-first-by-default-for-all-users/#comment-4572402
It is already beyond the scope of what an individual can do.
What we should be aware of is the reality that “governments and those in power want to control the world through the Web”, and efforts to counter (resist and prevent) such ambitions are necessary.
Why do you want people to disable the privacy features? Hmmmmm?
Now You: do you plan to keep the Ads privacy features enabled?
I’d like to tell you, but apparently if you make a post critical of Google, you get censored. * [Editor: removed, just try to bring your opinion across without attacking anyone]
@Martin
You website is still psychotic. Comments attach to random stories.
@Martin please do fix the comments, it’s completely insane commenting here! :[
@Martin
The comments are seriously messed up on gHacks now. These comments are mixed with the article at the below URL.
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/18/android-how-to-disable-2g-cellular-connections-to-improve-security/
And comments on other articles are from as far back as 2010.
What does this article has anything to do with all the comments on this article? LOL I think this Websuite is ran by ChatGPT. every article is messed up. Some older comments from 2015 shown up in recant articles, LOL
The picture captioned “Clearing the Android Auto’s cache might resolve the issue” is from Apple Carplay ;)
How about other things that matter:
Drop survival?
Screen toughness?
Degree of water and dust protection?