No more alarm wars: Android 15 will rescue shared tablets

While
most
Android
devices
are
only
used
by
one
person,
there
are
many

Android
tablets
designed
to
be
shared
among
members
of
a
family.
Thanks
to
Android’s
built-in
support
for
multiple
users,
it’s
easy
to
set
up
a
single
tablet
so
that
multiple
people
can
have
their
own
apps
and
files.
However,
trouble
arises
when
an
alarm
goes
off
in
the
background.
Without
switching
to
the
user
where
the
alarm
is
originating,
it’s
impossible
to
mute
or
dismiss
the
alarm.
Thankfully,
Google
is
working
on
a
fix
for
this
problem
in
the
latest

Android
15
release.

Starting
with
Android
15,
the
operating
system
has
a
way
to
handle
alarms
that
go
off
in
the
background.
If
one
user
sets
an
alarm
that
goes
off
while
another
user
is
signed
in,
then
the
current
user
will
get
a
notification
that
lets
them
mute
the
alarm
or
switch
users
to
deal
with
it.
The
addition
of
this
simple
notification
makes
it
so
you
don’t
have
to
change
users
to
mute
or
dismiss
the
alarm,
which
might
not
even
be
possible
if
you
don’t
have
the
PIN,
password,
or
pattern
used
to
unlock
that
user.

Although
code
for
this
feature
can
be
found
in
Android
15,
it
isn’t
yet
enabled,
not
even
in
the
latest

Android
15
QPR1
Beta
2.
I
had
to
manually
activate
the
feature
to
get
this
notification
to
appear.
Given
the
simplicity
of
the
feature
and
the
fact
that
it’s
already
fully
working,
I
expect
it’ll
go
live
soon,
though.

In
the
past
year,
Google
has
significantly
improved
multiuser
support
on
Android.
In
last
year’s

Android
14
release,
for
example,
Google
added
support
for
a
new
profile
type
that’s
designed
for
app
cloning.
More
recently,
the
company
introduced
a
new
“private”
profile
type
that
forms
the
backbone
of
the

Private
Space
feature
in
Android
15.
Technically,
“profiles”
and
“users”
are
considered
two
separate
things,
but
these
features
all
impact
the
shared
device
experience,
so
it’s
good
to
see
any
improvements
be
made
regardless.