Multiple users missing...
NtTestAlert
Level 1
I just realized that the ROM does not support multiple users. Virtually every android since a long time has supported this. This is a very important feature.
The problem is that max-users is set to 1 which makes using apps such as Island, Insular or Shelter (which depend on work profiles) work only with a single sandbox. It is impossible to create an additional sub-profile:
ASUS_I002D:/ $ pm create-user --profileOf 0 --managed Test Error: couldn't create User.
This is a >disaster< for me. I've spent a lot of money on this phone and other than that I am happy but this way I just cannot use almost half of my daily apps! Security and privacy are of utmost importance to me. I will never install facebook or aliexpress etc in an unisolated enviornment. The only way to go is to root the phone, which means the bootloader will be unlocked and the device will not be secure at all.
I hope that this will change with newest android rom that is in beta. If not giving us users, then at least enable us to create managed profiles! I do not understand why you would actively remove and not just disable even a huge part of an operating system, one of its basic functionalities. And quoting performance is not really helping either. Just warn the user about performance when using multiple users then. The functionality for managed profiles is not completely removed because a single work profile as managed by DPM works, but it is only limited to a single one.
At the moment I am considering selling this phone and buying one that supports basic Android features ;(
Comments
Unfortunately, ASUS phones do not support multiple users. If this is a requirement, then you need to go with another brand.
If you wonder why, it's because we had to many issues/bugs related to this feature. So we decided to remove it and replace it with twinapps since most users only needed multiple user support to run two of the same app.
Removing multi-user support from an OS in 2021 is like removing seats from a car...
I'm pretty sure not many people actually use this feature...
It's actually quite rare that I get questions about multiple user support. Maintaining a feature that very few people use when we could use those resources for better things is not at all like removing all the seats in a car. I'm sorry if this feature was important to you but most users don't care or even know about this feature.
Yes, like many people who drive alone in their 4-7 seaters. Android is not meant to be a one person glider plane. I assume the missing accounts feature also prevents use of parental controls in Android? It is a feature I will soon need, because, you know, this is a game-ready phone and we have got new generation kidos popping up with all this amazing tech around them. I hope I am wrong.