Google plans to bring Android’s work profile feature to more devices. If you’re not familiar with the tool, it separates your work and personal apps from one another and adds a toggle to your phone you can use to disable the former when you need to disconnect.
When you flip the switch, any work-related apps you have installed on your device can’t send you notifications and access your location. It also silos the data from your personal apps, ensuring that your company’s IT department can’t access your personal information.
At the moment, the tool is only available to enterprise customers, but starting in 2022 Google will begin rolling it out to Workspace users. It then plans to make it available to other identity providers. “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,” the company said. The feature’s expansion should be of great help to business owners and freelancers but nearly anyone can benefit from having a better work-life balance.