As part of a larger update on Android for company users, Google reveals plans to expand the availability of job profiles. This feature allows users to separate their work and personal life on one handset, but only available for current devices. It will start changing next year when Google brings features to workspace users with more to follow.
The need to maintain a balance of work life is more important than before with many people turning to long distance work. Even though many people have work computers that are dedicated separately from their personal computers, it’s less common when it comes to cellphones. As a result, the application and person’s work account are often mixed with personal content, making it more difficult to avoid work after hours while increasing security risks.
The Android Job profile feature offers a solution by separating someone’s work and personal content, adding a small work bag icon to the work application. This means, for example, that users with work profiles will have two gmail instances on their devices, which are dedicated to working for their business email.
This feature is only available on android devices managed with emm software. In the update, Google said that it would bring a job profile to workspace users in 2022, even though it did not provide a narrower release date.
This will make features available for devices that are not managed for workspace users. Google said it also planned to expand the availability of job profiles to Android devices with other identity providers too, but it did not share info again on the plan. Google is undoubtedly returning with additional information in the future regarding things like which Android version will support job profiles.