1 page.title=Supporting Multiple Users 2 @jd:body 3 4 <!-- 5 Copyright 2015 The Android Open Source Project 6 7 Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); 8 you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. 9 You may obtain a copy of the License at 10 11 http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 12 13 Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software 14 distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, 15 WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. 16 See the License for the specific language governing permissions and 17 limitations under the License. 18 --> 19 <div id="qv-wrapper"> 20 <div id="qv"> 21 <h2>In this document</h2> 22 <ol id="auto-toc"> 23 </ol> 24 </div> 25 </div> 26 27 <p>This document describes the Android multi-user feature. It allows more than one 28 user on a single Android device by separating their accounts and application 29 data. For instance, parents may let their children use the family tablet. Or a 30 critical team might share a mobile device for on-call duty.</p> 31 32 <h1 id=definitions>Definitions</h1> 33 34 <p>Before supporting multiple Android users, you should understand the basic 35 concepts involved. Here are the primary terms used when describing Android 36 users and accounts:</p> 37 38 <ul> 39 <li><em>User</em> - Each user is intended to be used by a different physical person. Each user 40 has distinct application data and some unique settings, as well as a user 41 interface to explicitly switch between users. A user can run in the background 42 when another user is active; the system manages shutting down users to conserve 43 resources when appropriate. Secondary users can be created either directly via 44 the primary user interface or from a <a 45 href="https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/admin/device-admin.html">Device 46 Administration</a> application. 47 <li><em>Account</em> - Accounts are contained within a user but are not defined by a user. Nor is a 48 user defined by or linked to any given account. Users and profiles contain 49 their own unique accounts but are not required to have accounts to be 50 functional. The list of accounts differs by user. See the <a href="https://developer.android.com/reference/android/accounts/Account.html">Account class</a> definition. 51 <li><em>Profile<strong></em> </strong>- A profile has separated app data but shares some system-wide settings (for 52 example, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth). A profile is a subset of and tied to the 53 existence of a user. A user can have multiple profiles. They are created 54 through a <a href="https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/admin/device-admin.html">Device 55 Administration</a> application. A profile always has an immutable 56 association to a parent user, defined by the user that created the profile. 57 Profiles do not live beyond the lifetime of the creating user. 58 <li><em>App</em> - An applications data exists within each associated user. App data is 59 sandboxed from other applications within the same user. Apps within the same 60 user can interact with each other via IPC. See <a href="https://developer.android.com/training/enterprise/index.html">Building Apps for Work</a>. 61 </ul> 62 63 <h2 id=user_types>User types</h2> 64 65 <ul> 66 <li><em>Primary</em> - The first user added to a device. The primary user cannot be removed except 67 by factory reset. This user also has some special privileges and settings only 68 it can set. The primary user is always running even when other users are in the 69 foreground. 70 <li><em>Secondary</em> - Any user added to the device other than the primary user. They can be 71 removed by either themselves or the primary user and cannot impact other users 72 on a device. Secondary users can run in the background and will continue to 73 have network connectivity when they do. 74 <li><em>Guest<strong></em> </strong>- A guest user is a temporary secondary user with an explicit option to quick 75 delete the guest user when its usefulness is over. There can be only one guest 76 user at a time. 77 </ul> 78 79 <h2 id=profile_types>Profile types</h2> 80 81 <ul> 82 <li><em>Managed<strong></em> </strong>- Managed profiles are created by an application to contain work data and 83 apps. They are managed exclusively by the profile owner, the app who created 84 the corp profile. Launcher, notifications and recent tasks are shared by the 85 primary user and the corp profile. 86 <li><em>Restricted</em> - Restricted profiles use the accounts based off the primary user. The Primary 87 user can control what apps are available on the restricted profile. Restricted 88 profiles are available only on tablets. 89 </ul> 90 91 <h1 id=effects>Effects</h1> 92 93 <p>When users are added to a device, some functionality will be curtailed when 94 another user is in the foreground. Since app data is separated by user, the 95 state of those apps differs by user. For example, email destined for an account 96 of a user not currently in focus wont be available until that user and account 97 are active on the device.</p> 98 99 <p>The default state is only the primary user has full access to phone calls and 100 texts. The secondary user may receive inbound calls but cannot send or receive 101 texts. The primary user must enable these functions for others.</p> 102 103 <p class="note"><strong>Note</strong>: To enable or disable the phone and SMS functions for a secondary user, go to 104 Settings > Users, select the user, and switch the <em>Allow phone calls and SMS</em> setting to off.</p> 105 106 <p>Please note, some restrictions exist when a secondary user is in background. 107 For instance, the background secondary user will not be able to display the 108 user interface or make Bluetooth services active. Finally, background secondary 109 users will be halted by the system process if the device needs additional 110 memory for operations in the foreground user.</p> 111 112 <p>Here are aspects of behavior to keep in mind when employing multiple users on 113 an Android device:</p> 114 115 <ul> 116 <li>Notifications appear for all accounts of a single user at once. 117 <li>Notifications for other users do not appear until they are active. 118 <li>Each user gets his or her own workspace to install and place apps. 119 <li>No user has access to the app data of another user. 120 <li>Any user can affect the installed apps for all users. 121 <li>The primary user can remove apps or even the entire workspace established by 122 secondary users. 123 </ul> 124 125 <h1 id=implementation>Implementation</h1> 126 127 <h2 id=managing_users>Managing users</h2> 128 129 <p>Management of users and profiles (with the exception of restricted profiles) is 130 performed by applications that programmatically invoke API in the <code>DevicePolicyManager</code> class to restrict use.</p> 131 132 <p>Schools and enterprises may employ users and profiles to manage the lifetime 133 and scope of apps and data on devices. They may use the types outlined above in 134 conjunction with the <a href="http://developer.android.com/reference/android/os/UserManager.html">UserManager API</a> to build unique solutions tailored to their use cases.</p> 135 136 <h2 id=applying_the_overlay>Applying the overlay</h2> 137 138 <p>The multi-user feature is disabled by default in the Android 5.0 release. To 139 enable it, device manufacturers must define a resource overlay that replaces 140 the following values in frameworks/base/core/res/res/values/config.xml:</p> 141 142 <pre> 143 <!-- Maximum number of supported users --> 144 <integer name="config_multiuserMaximumUsers">1</integer> 145 <!-- Whether Multiuser UI should be shown --> 146 <bool name="config_enableMultiUserUI">false</bool> 147 </pre> 148 149 <p>To apply this overlay and enable guest and secondary users on the device, use the 150 <code>DEVICE_PACKAGE_OVERLAYS</code> feature of the Android build system to:</p> 151 152 <ul> 153 <li> Replace the value for <code>config_multiuserMaximumUsers</code> with one greater than 1 154 <li> Replace the value of <code>config_enableMultiUserUI</code> with: <code>true</code> 155 </ul> 156 157 <p>Device manufacturers may decide upon the maximum number of users.</p> 158 159 <p>That said, if device manufacturers or others have modified settings, they need 160 to ensure SMS and telephony work as defined in the <a 161 href="{@docRoot}compatibility/android-cdd.pdf">Android Compatibility Definition 162 Document</a> (CDD).</p> 163
