Latest Android 14 work profile change should mean smoother transitions for work-life balance

The idea behind the Android work profile is that you can easily separate your work from your personal life without having to lug around a second smartphone. All your work apps reside in a dedicated container that can be easily deactivated at the end of the day, either manually or with a timer via Android’s Digital Wellbeing app. Starting with Android 14, however, Google is making some key changes to how Work Profile, well, jobs.

In older versions of the Android OS, scroll to the work tab in the launcher and then tap the “pause work app” button turn off instead of actually break the work profile. It might seem like a distinction without differences, but in Android it actually means something. When a profile is deactivated, all apps stop working as well, meaning they can’t poll for notifications or do Nothing. When you reactivate the profile, you may be inundated with notifications as all your apps start polling for them. Conversely, when a profile is paused, apps continue to run in the background, so they can continue to poll for notifications. This means that when you turn it back on, you won’t be flooded with notifications you missed.

In Android 14, the OS now pauses instead of deactivating the work profile when the user taps the “pause work app” button. The text on the work profile card has been slightly changed to reflect this change. In Android 13, when the work profile is turned off, the launcher states that “Your work apps can’t send you notifications, use your battery, or access your location.” In Android 14, this was changed to simply mean “you won’t get notifications from your work apps.”

This change in wording suggests that work profile apps in Android 14 can use battery power and access your location when your work profile is paused, although a Google spokesperson reached out after this article was published to inform us that work profile apps cannot, in fact, access your location when your profile is paused. However, as apps are allowed to continue to run, this could affect battery life, though than we can’t tell without further testing.

Left: Deactivating a work profile in Android 13. Right: Pausing a work profile in Android 14.

I’m getting ahead of myself, though. How do I actually know that Android 14 pauses instead of deactivating the work profile? I was first notified of this change by Android Enterprise expert Jason Baiton, who attended Google’s annual Android Enterprise Partner Summit. I too was confused at first when I heard what was supposedly changed, from Google’s documentation clearly it claims you’re already “pausing your work profile” when you hit the button that says “pause work apps”. After some testing though, I can confirm that Android 14 does indeed change the way it manages the work profile lifecycle.

Using an ADB command, I compared the output of the “dumpsys user” command, which returns detailed information about each “user” on Android, before and after deactivating/pausing the work profile. (A work profile in Android is also known as a “managed profile”. I used the FOSS Shelter app to create a work profile on my device for this test.)

Here is the output Before disabling the work profile on a device with Android 13:

And here is the output After disabling the work profile on the same device:

As you can see, before deactivating it, the work profile status was labeled as “RUNNING_UNLOCKED”, meaning it was actively running. After shutting it down, the state was changed to “-1” and the QUIET_MODE flag was applied to it. Managed profiles can be put into quiet mode via the UserManager#requestQuietModeEnabled(…) API provided they have the required permission. When silent mode is enabled, “apps in a managed profile don’t run, generate notifications, or consume data or battery.” The Silent Mode API basically provides a way for apps like the launcher and Digital Wellbeing to toggle the work profile state.

Now, here is the output of the same command Before pausing the work profile, only this time on a device running Android 14:

And now After pause work profile:

Although the QUIET_MODE flag is still applied, the work profile status is still labeled “RUNNING_UNLOCKED”, which means it is still running in the background.

Now that I’ve shown you that Android 14 changes work profile behavior, I have to tell you why you should care. And for that I’m turning to the person who first broke this news: Android Enterprise expert Jason Bayton. In his blog post mentioning the change, he explains:

Why would you choose to pause a work profile instead of simply deactivating it?

• Applications continue to receive notifications and data in the background, so you’re not overwhelmed by them when you activate the profile. Work apps are immediately available when reactivated (no waiting or syncing required).
• Updating policies still apply, so they can do it in the background instead of when the profile is active again. Obviously apps shared between both profiles will also update if the work profile is turned off, but apps only in the work profile won’t unless the profile is turned on, normally.
• Cross-profile contacts are identified, so you’ll know you’re getting a call from the boss while the profile is paused. When completely out the numbers are not identified.

In many ways, this change benefits the end user. As I mentioned earlier, since apps can continue to poll for notifications in the background while the work profile is paused, they won’t flood your notifications when you wake up the profile. Notifications won’t actually appear in the notification panel until you reactivate the profile, like before, although there may be a bug where notifications are still forwarded to some connected wearable devices. We’ve asked Google to comment on this behavior and will share an update if we hear anything.

Another user benefit, as mentioned by Jason, is that this helps users stay compliant with their corporate update policy. Previously, if a user disabled a work profile during an extended vacation, they could be non-compliant because their device failed to apply updates until they re-enable the work profile. Since the work profile is never deactivated, however, apps can be updated in the background in accordance with the company’s update policy.

However, there are some potential downsides to this change. For starters, since your Work Profile never shuts down, it’s unclear what impact that might have on battery life. Another potential downside is that this could affect how some apps see if you’re online. Jason expressed concern that he will never appear offline to co-workers due to this change, but a Google spokesperson told us it’s up to individual app developers to determine if a user is online. Android offers APIs that apps can use to see if they are suspended, which was previously not possible for work profile apps since they would not be running when the user deactivates the work profile.

As Jason says, Google has basically replaced the previous behavior with an aggressive do not disturb mode, but how that will affect work-life balance remains to be seen. Either way, it’s a fact that not every job will respect the fact that you’re after hours, so you better start working on setting those boundaries now!

UPDATE: 2023-07-19 4:44 PM EST BY STEPHEN SCHENCK

Google response

Google has reached out to Android Police to offer more details and clarify the nature of this work profile change. Our post has been updated to reflect this new information.