Android 14 will allow you to use two accounts for each app (maybe)

Maybe many of you still haven’t received it Android 13 on your devices, but progress does not stop, and yesterday Google released the premiere Developer Preview (DP1) of Android 14the latest iteration of the green robot.

At the moment, the news seems to focus on aspects such as optimization for screens Of big dimensions, customization And privacy, but there is an interesting point that came out analyzing the build better, and it is the possibility of clone appsso you can use two accounts at the same time.

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Of network, but i already have it on my phone! It’s true, there app cloningi.e. the ability to use more account for the same app, it’s something that already exists, but with some distinctions.

Historically, app cloning is a function implemented by OEMsespecially Chinese, like OnePlus with his Parallel apps or Xiaomiwhich you will therefore not find in every phone.

So, for apps that don’t plan on switching between accounts and yours smartphones do not support it, you will have to rely on third party services.

There is one problem, though. Generally, these solutions clone apps by installing them on secondary user profilesas the case of OnePlus, or creating job profiles, as is the case with third-party apps. The latter solution isn’t optimal as, other than the UI changes, it is completely isolated from the main account for file access, while the secondary profile it is only partially so, since it does have its own directories, but can access the main profile app storage and data.

But things are gradually changing. With Android 12Google introduced the clone user profilewhich, however, was only accessible through ADB commands to build it and install apps on it, and with Android 13 this implementation has been included in the Compatibility Definition Document (CDD, the document that lists the features to be included in Android by OEMs) as optional.

And we come to Android 14.

In the first DP, a new section of the settings, under the voice apps, call Cloned apps which allows you to easily create the already named clone user profile on which the apps to be cloned will be installed again. Because the clone profile doesn’t share app data with the main user profile, any cloned app won’t keep your login information or settings, so you’ll have to set them up from scratch.

From this section you can easily of delete the cloned appsin case you decide you no longer need it, or you can do it from the page Information of the app itself.

There are a couple of observations to make about the current one implementation. The first is that it is not yet available officially. The XDA site has enabled it through a flag in the developer settings.

Then missing theintegration with the launcherwhich means that one cannot distinguish the icons of apps cloned from the main ones, and the system also creates a new one job profilealthough it is not used.

Finally not all app they can be cloned, but that’s at the discretion of the OEM. The XDA site managed to change a flag to allow cloning of Discord, Facebook And Telegrambut there is no mechanism or API to enable it.

In short, the function is an open building site, e it is not even mentioned that Google releases it with Android 14, but at least we know it fits working, which is a big step forward and, who knows, it might make it in the future mandatory in the CDD.