Although Apple's Safari browser on iOS has offered multi-profile support since last year, Google's Chrome browser has stubbornly held out—until now.
MacObserver reports that Google is testing a new feature that would allow iOS users to employ multiple profiles inside the Chrome browser running on Apple's mobile operating system. The Apple-tracking website found code inside Google's browser that suggests it's testing a feature allowing users to switch between profiles while using Chrome on iOS.
Having the option to switch between profiles on a browser is exceptionally valuable. If multiple people are using a device, being able to switch profiles means they can have a different set of bookmarks, separate their histories, and save a different search history to expedite future searches. While Google has offered multi-profile support in Chrome on other operating systems, including Windows, it's stubbornly stuck to a single-profile model on iOS and its own mobile operating system, Android.
Perhaps most notably, the company stuck to the single-profile version despite Apple offering a multi-profile option in Safari last year.
That said, multiple profiles aren't necessarily valuable for every use case. In iOS, for example, many people use their iPhones or iPads independently and don't share with others. Having the option to switch profiles in those cases is decidedly unnecessary. The same holds true for Android, where someone who owns the device may similarly be the only person using it.
However, it appears that Google is moving ahead with the plan to offer just that in iOS. Although the company is working on Android 15, there's no indication that the multi-profile option is coming to Android, making it even more notable that multi-profile support is coming to a competing operating system over the one that Google itself offers.
Whatever the case, there are still plenty of questions surrounding MacObserver's discovery. For one, testing a feature doesn't necessarily mean that it'll definitely make its way to a publicly available operating system. And even if it does, there's no telling when it will eventually launch.
But it's still nice to see Google thinking about multi-profile support in iOS. And if all goes well during testing, there's at least a good chance it'll make its way to Apple's operating system in the near future.
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