Work and personal Google accounts on 1 phone

[VivaTerlingua]

I've been an iPhone user for years but I am pretty deeply immersed in the Google ecosystem so I've been thinking about trying a Pixel 2 XL to see if I can take better advantage of my Google accounts.

We use Gsuite and and Gmail at work. I have a personal Gmail account, several Google Home speakers, and have all my music on Google Play. The Google Home speakers are tied to my personal Google account and have been a big disappointment as far as being able to access anything on my Google work account. Am I going to have the same disappointment with a Pixel phone? How well will it integrate two Google accounts?

 

[libra89]

If I'm understanding you correctly, you will have to choose one to be your main account for your Pixel 2 XL. From what I'm seeing on my own Pixel (first gen but with Oreo so similar experience), when you add another account to your phone, it will be secondary. I don't use Keep, or Docs to know how those 2 will be but with Drive, you are able to add another account to switch between them.

You can't do that with the Google Play Store of course but I noticed that with a good number of Google apps, you can do this switching. Hopefully someone else can chime in with their experience.

 

[evo4gMN]

If I'm understanding you correctly, you will have to choose one to be your main account for your Pixel 2 XL. From what I'm seeing on my own Pixel (first gen but with Oreo so similar experience), when you add another account to your phone, it will be secondary. I don't use Keep, or Docs to know how those 2 will be but with Drive, you are able to add another account to switch between them.

You can't do that with the Google Play Store of course but I noticed that with a good number of Google apps, you can do this switching. Hopefully someone else can chime in with their experience.

I have the same experience. I think you are spot on

 

[VivaTerlingua]

If I'm understanding you correctly, you will have to choose one to be your main account for your Pixel 2 XL. From what I'm seeing on my own Pixel (first gen but with Oreo so similar experience), when you add another account to your phone, it will be secondary. I don't use Keep, or Docs to know how those 2 will be but with Drive, you are able to add another account to switch between them.

You can't do that with the Google Play Store of course but I noticed that with a good number of Google apps, you can do this switching. Hopefully someone else can chime in with their experience.

I use Keep at work but not at home. If I set my home account as my primary account on my phone, will it be a hassle to access my work Keep items?

 

[libra89]

I have the same experience. I think you are spot on

Thank you for this confirmation!

I use Keep at work but not at home. If I set my home account as my primary account on my phone, will it be a hassle to access my work Keep items?

Nope, I just tried Keep and you will just switch accounts (after adding of course) in the app to access your work Keep items.

 

[e30ernest]

My experience so far: Google now separates work from personal Accounts. This means I now have 2 separate copies of Google apps like Chrome, Gmail, Drive, Contacts, Play Store, etc). These secondary apps can be toggled on and off temporarily through the quick settings tiles on your notification bar.

This may sound messy, but it is actually a good thing. GSuite may require administrative access to a user's device depending on your company policy. This means whoever is managing your company Accounts can do stuff to your device (like wipe it). By keeping the accounts and apps separate, they can only have access to that half of the phone.

The downside is that you get multiple copies of the same apps. Your "work" apps have limited interaction with regular apps (cannot copy text from your work Gmail to your personal apps but you can copy text the other way around for example).

There is an option to run work and personal accounts the old Android way too which is basically what some have said here (having primary and secondary accounts). But if your office IT decides to wipe your device, it'll wipe everything.

Overall, I think the Pixel integrates the best with Google apps. It's not a surprise given that it is Google's own device.

 

[stmax]

I sort of have the same thing going on as my wife and I started a combo email address about 10 years ago and there is too much history with it to ditch it. So we have photos etc tied to that account but we also have our own Gmail addresses now.

On top of that I also use gsuite for work. I would maybe set up the phone with your personal account so it can naturally be default for GA etc. Although every single Google product including Play store can be toggled.

To handle my work account I have it behind my Samsung secure folder so everything work is segregated and defaults to that account. (Sorry I know this may not apply here but perhaps there is such a solution available on pixel.)

 

[e30ernest]

To handle my work account I have it behind my Samsung secure folder so everything work is segregated and defaults to that account. (Sorry I know this may not apply here but perhaps there is such a solution available on pixel.)

Not sure how Samsung's secure folder works (been years since I've used a Samsung device) but Google's new Device Policy manager segregates your work account from your personal account:

They are managed independently. This also means you have duplicates of certain Google Apps:

The "Work" apps contain all your work-related emails (I currently have 2 work emails from separate companies there). You can toggle these work apps on/off temporarily too:

When you turn off "Work Mode", you'll stop receiving notifications from work apps. These apps will also be greyed out, meaning you can't open them. Reactivating Work Mode will require you to enter your PIN/Pattern (fingerprint does not work) before you can access work apps again. This adds a nice layer of security. Also useful if you are on vacation and do not want to be disturbed.

 

[VivaTerlingua]

Thanks e30ernest. That looks like a pretty functional way to handle the accounts.