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Android work profiles eventually coming to unmanaged masses

Users will no longer need to be reliant on their employee enabling the feature for them.
Written by Chris Duckett, Contributor
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Image: Google

One of the shortcomings of the current implementation of Android work profiles is users cannot choose to enable it.

The decision of whether to use proper Android profiles has been made deep in the bowels of various IT departments, determined by whether companies want to support work profiles or not -- and if you ever switched employers, even if you had precious segmentation between personal and work, that could very well disappear.

However, Google is slowly going to expand its support for Android work profiles.

"Previously, the work profile was only available on managed devices. Now, we're planning to bring those same work profile benefits to unmanaged users with a business identity, too," the company said in a blog post.

"This will eventually allow anyone using Android for business purposes to separate work and personal apps in one interface and pause all work-related apps in one click. This will be available to Google Workspace users first starting next year, with plans to expand to more identity providers soon after."

Hopefully as work profiles are extended, Google will work out a way to allocate a SIM to a profile, so users could also have a work SIM using data on work apps, and a personal SIM otherwise.

Elsewhere in Android, Google said it was lowering its take on subscriptions from 30% in the first year and 15% thereafter, to a straight 15% cut.

The company is also lowering its cut on ebooks and on-demand music streaming services down to 10% for eligible apps.

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