I hate when people touch my phone without my permission. No, I’m not hiding anything, but I don’t like people snooping on my phone. Even if they have no intention of doing so and need to click a photo or call someone, the thought drives me crazy. What if you could lend your phone to someone without any of your data on it?
Luckily, it’s doable with guest mode on Android. So what is this mode and what does it do? Find out everything about it in this article.
Basics of multiple users
When you buy a new Android phone, you must sign in with your Google account to download apps. The first person to register with the phone is the administrator or primary user of the phone. That person automatically becomes an administrator and can install/remove apps, add users, format devices, etc.
Let’s say a family member or friend has regular access to your phone. Then that person shouldn’t have the same permissions as you or the right to look through your library and other personal things. That’s where Android’s multiplayer feature comes in.
Android provides two types of user profiles besides admins: user and guest. The first profile is for users who regularly use your phone while the guest profile is for those who will be accessing the phone shortly.
For both types of profiles, a separate space is created on your phone. Both profiles are free of your data, such as installed apps, call history, and preferences.
Guest vs User Profile
User profiles or sub-users provide a separate profile on your phone. Logging out of a profile will not delete any data from that profile.
Let’s say two of your kids use your phone — one likes to have a music app and the other wants to play games. You can create a separate user profile for each child other than your own. They can have apps, home screens, settings, and wallpapers depending on their profile preferences. Every time they want to use your device, you can switch to their profile.
That is not possible with guest mode because it is a temporary space or you can call it temporary user profile. You create a profile for a guest, they do their job, and then delete it with a single tap. Deleting a guest profile is as easy as logging out of it, which will remove all data from the profile.
However, if you switch a profile, you can continue from your previous guest session, but mistakenly pressing the button will delete everything. So, if you haven’t deleted your guest profile and when you log back in, you’ll have a choice — continue the session or start it over. Tapping Start over will delete the previous session.
Multiple guest profiles
You can only have one guest profile on your phone. If you want another guest to use your phone, you’ll have to delete the previous guest session to start over. That is not the case with user profiles as you can have multiple user sessions running on the same phone. Of course, doing that will only affect overall performance.
Protect personal data
Similar to user profile, primary user installed apps, personal data (such as photos, audio, video, contacts), application data (call history, web history) , chat and messages), settings and customizations will not be available in the method client. Even notifications from the admin’s account will be blocked on the guest profile. However, you can access all of that when you switch to the admin profile.
Guest mode gives the feel of a new device, where you are only provided with pre-installed apps.
Please note that if you are using an SD Card on your phone, guests and users can access those files and even modify them or add new files.
Calls and SMS
By default, the guest profile can only receive calls and does not have permission to make calls. However, there is a setting that allows you to share your call history and the ability to make outgoing calls from guest mode.
You can enable it by tapping the gear icon next to Guest in the Multi-user settings. Then toggle the switch for ‘Turn on phone calls’.
Note:
Similarly, the ability to send and receive SMS is available for the user profile but not for the guest profile.
View guest profile data storage and usage
Fortunately, Google allows you to view the storage of secondary users and guest profiles on your phone. Do not worry. The administrator cannot see the actual data.
To do that, navigate to Settings > Storage. There you will find information about the storage space occupied by the guest profile in the Other Users section.
You can also monitor the data (Wi-Fi and cellular data) used by the guest profile by going to Settings > Data usage.
Turn on guest mode
The location of the guest mode settings varies between phones. On stock Android devices, you’ll find guest mode in Settings > System > Multi-user. On other phones, you’ll have Users and accounts right in Settings. Similarly, some have it in Settings > Privacy > Guest Mode.
Alternatively, open the quick settings panel and tap the user icon. Then tap on Guest to switch to it.
If you don’t find guest mode in any of the steps above, use the search in settings to find ‘user’. If it doesn’t answer, then this mode is missing from your phone.
Add guests from the lock screen
If someone asks for your phone, you don’t have to dig through the settings to switch to a guest user. You just need to switch users quickly from the lock screen. To achieve that you have to enable the ‘Add user from lock screen’ setting found under Users/Multiple users in Settings.
Once enabled, tap the user icon at the top of the lock screen to enter guest mode.
Note:
Sign out of Guest Mode
When you’re done using guest mode, there’s no need to wait for the admin to delete the profile because you can do it yourself. To do that, open the quick panel and tap on the user icon. Then tap Remove Guest.
Note: 
Supported Android devices
Guest mode is available on Android devices (phones and tablets) running Android 5.0 Lollipop or later. However, some brands like Xiaomi, Samsung and Huawei have disabled the Android native feature to use their versions of the mode, such as Xiaomi’s Second Space.
When to use Guest Mode
Let’s say you need to replace your phone’s screen. Usually, you will hand over your phone to a mobile repair agent by locking it. In some cases, you need to keep your phone unlocked for testing. Now no one wants a random stranger to use their phone. That’s where you can use guest mode.
Similarly, if a person needs your phone to take a photo or tour your phone to check if they want to buy it, guest mode can be quite handy.
It’s all about guest mode. How do you like it? Will you use it? Let us know in the comments below.
Next up: Looking for some Android apps that will help your daily life? Check out these 15 useful Android apps.
Categories: How to
Source: thpttranhungdao.edu.vn/en/
