In it, the company stated about a new app coming to Pixel devices and is called Clone Profile. According to its description, the Clone Profile app is able to clone default apps in your phone and let users manage multiple instances of the same service.
Clone Profile in Android 12
Cloning apps isn’t new in the Android community. For a long, people are using third-party apps like Parallel Space to clone eligible apps and run multiple instances for various purposes. Realizing the need, few OEMs like Xiaomi, Samsung, etc have made their own apps based on Android. While these served the actual purpose, Google hasn’t made anything like that for the native Android community yet. But with Android 12, this could change. As spotted by XDA in Android 12’s Compatibility Definition Document (CDD), a new service called Clone Profile is coming soon.
Looks like Android 12 quietly added a new profile type called “Clone.” Android seems to finally natively add app cloning support, without the weird work profile hack! — Mishaal Rahman (@MishaalRahman) October 18, 2021 People running Android 12 on Pixel phones can try the beta version of this app already. And those who tried are saying it’s buggy since in the initial stages. Some report that the Clone profile app is seen by the system launcher as a work profile and it randomly clones installed apps when created. Well, that’s expected in the beta stage, we expect Google to make it perfect when rolled out in a stable channel. Until then, understanding the need for it is necessary. As its description read, “Clone profile is a user profile type used to run the second instance of an otherwise single user App (e.g., messengers). Only the primary user is allowed to have a clone profile.” After all these years, Google is finally making a native cloning app for Android users, that can run three instances simultaneously. Users can soon skip going through the hassle of setting up different work profiles, to clone apps.
