Have you ever wanted to share your iPhone or iPad with someone else? If you share your Mac with someone, you can each have your own account. OS X is designed for multiple users. But iOS is not.
iOS does give you restrictions, the ability to limit the type of content accessible from your device. Restrictions lets you limit access to specific apps, like Safari, FaceTime, Camera, the iTunes/iBooks store, Siri, and AirDrop. You can prevent people from installing and deleting apps, from changing privacy setting, and a lot more.
Though restrictions is powerful and needed, it does take time to set up and, once set up, there is no easy way to switch everything back to all access mode for your own personal use.
iOS also offers guided access, an accessibility feature that lets you limit a device to a single app, control which features are available. Guided access is extremely useful if you will be setting up a kiosk or distributing devices to a controlled group, such as a museum tour, or students in a classroom.
There are no doubt technical hurdles to overcome to make iOS a truly multi-user OS on the order of OS X. And some might argue that the iPhone and iPad are personal devices, not designed to be shared. But how many times has someone asked to borrow your phone to look something up or, as a parent, how many times have you wanted to give your phone/iPad to your child, perhaps for entertainment on a long car ride.
As an aside, the latest version of Android, Lollipop, ships with multi-user support built in. I can’t help but imagine that engineers at Apple are working on solving this problem for iOS, as well.
In the meantime, how about this idea? Add in support for a single profile tied in to restrictions. Then tie that profile into Touch ID and Passcode.
The idea would be, let me set up my restrictions profile with all the limitations and privacy I’d like, then tie that to a unique passcode. If I login with my regular passcode or my fingerprint, I get full access. If I login with my guest passcode or fingerprint, I get the restricted access version, ideal if I want to hand my phone or iPad off to someone. No worries about accessing private information or accidentally deleting something of value.
Not that I don’t like the idea, but why spend resources implementing a temporary solution? Why not just implement the proper solution first?
I doubt they see this as the problem you do. Just buy more phones and iPads.
Agreed. In my case, if you don’t resell your iPhones/iPads, pretty soon you find you can assign one to every 11-year old at your daughter’s birthday party. I think they multiply when I’m not looking.
This solution sounds better than many, but for me (and for many others I think), it addresses something that isn’t really a problem in the first place.
I would never just hand my device to someone else to use, unless that person was a good and close friend at minimum. And, if you are keeping secrets from good and close personal friends, then … well why would you need to do that unless you are a serial killer or something.
The only case where this might be necessary is if you have kids. I think people are just upset that iOS devices are popular with kids and that you are basically forced to buy one for each kid.
I believe all data in iOS is stored in a user-centric fashion, it’s just that it uses a default user account. Switching to a multi-user system shouldn’t be too difficult.
My kingdom for a true kids mode at least. The pain in the ass to use Guided Access mode doesn’t cut it. When my little one wants to use my iPhone for a bit at the restaurant, and it will keep the toddler settled, it would be fantastic if it were a simple matter to kid proof it.
This is something I think should be on the iPad, maybe not so much on the iPhone. Given that Apple pioneered multi-user accounts in the Mac OS, its kind of surprising that something like this hasn’t been implemented on the iPad. Especially if they’re touting the iPad as a post-PC replacement for families who might have been intimidated by PCs. These families (who have stayed away from PCs) aren’t going to run out and buy multiple iPads for the family, they’re going to cautiously purchase one for the family and share it.
Real multi-user sounds bogus [in terms of effort and use case justification], but something like OSX “guest mode” you can authenticate out of sounds relatively doable.
Terrible secrets like financial information or family health information. Wanting to keep that stuff private means you’re the Son of Sam.
MDM providers have sort-of solved this problem for enterprise environments. A clever mix of configuration profile magic makes it all happen.
The setup is like this: You have an iPad in supervised mode (either via Apple Configurator or the Device Enrollment Plan) that is also enrolled to your MDM. You have your MDM provider’s application installed and you attach user accounts to it (usually LDAP domain credentials in the enterprise, but manually created individual user accounts work too). You deploy a configuration profile that puts the iOS device in Single-App Mode to lock it to the MDM app. Once the user logs into the App the MDM server reads the credentials and removes the Single-App mode profile and pushes down user specific profiles for email, vpn, third-party app config, etc. When that user is done, they log out of the MDM app and all of the user specific profiles are pulled off (removing their personal data in the process) and then the single-app mode profile is pushed back down locking back it to the MDM app. Rinse and repeat.
It’s a little convoluted, but it does give a quasi-multiuser solution to businesses that have shared iOS devices. We use this in nursing areas, on transports, etc. when iPads are shared across shifts.
“And some might argue that the iPhone and iPad are personal devices, not designed to be shared.”
iPhone, sure. iPad, no.
“The only case where this might be necessary is if you have kids.”
Since this situation is so unusual, why even bother?
We’ve been waiting for this for years. Clearly Apple just don’t want this feature. Not perfect, but at least there is the app Slice that kinda do the tricks.
Restrictions are a horrible solution. The minute you turn them off you have to set them again manually! Color me annoyed at this feature.
Point of clarity: Android released this in Jelly Bean, two to three versions back in 4.2. It is still in lollipop and on phones now but tablets had it a couple years ago.
Well now that all three personal iDevices have TouchID (iPhone, iPad Air 2, iPad mini 3) perhaps multiuser accounts via an individual’s fingerprint will be possible.
Wait and see.
IOS is built on Unix. Unix is a multi-user platform. Apple simply DID NOT WANT you to be able to share your device. Android has had multi user support since Jellybean, after only 1.5 years of true tablet use with Honeycomb and Ice Cream Sandwich. That’s because Android is open-source. People get what they want by improving it as a community. If Apple actually cared what people wanted, they’d win back a great deal of the market share, I’m sure.
lol, you obviously do not have children.
It is worth mentioning that Android and iOS have a lot more in common than you might think as they are both different flavours of UNIX / LINUX
I cannot believe that iOS still doesn’t have this type of functionality .. Android has had it for well over a year now ..
And buying several iPads is not the solution here .. tho Apple thinks it is, as they are all about $$
This one thing has turned me off to Apple after returning to the fold and buying a MacBook 12″ and iPad Air2. Reeks of disperate financial engineering being preferred over developing a user friendly system. The opposite of what I expected but there is no other conclusion to be made.
Jean may just be sarcastic. I am not sure, that there just be a hint of it.
LOL.. 😀
Your idea to have additional settings that are tied to a certain passcode spots on. So many times I had to hide whatsapp’s notification so my kids won’t accidentally see my friends’ ugly/expletive chats. And Safari’s history. And Youtube’s history. The list goes on and on.
The fact that I comment on a 3-year old post is telling