If you have more than one Google account, you may have wondered whether you can use them simultaneously on your Android phone. Yes, you can, and I'll show you how to set them up, so you can manage multiple Google accounts in one profile.

All instructions below will work on stock Android. For screenshots, we've used a OnePlus phone running OxygenOS 9.0.6. We verified that all the steps are identical on Android 11.

How to Add Additional Google Accounts

We'll assume you've already set up one Google account and want to add a second one.

Add the Google Account

From your Android device's home screen, go to Settings > Accounts and tap Add account at the bottom. Select Google from the list. You might have to confirm your device password or fingerprint.

Next, log into your Google account with your email address, password, and a two-factor authentication code, if you've set this up. You might also have to confirm your account using a backup email address or phone number you provided upon setup. You can even create a new account from the initial login screen.

Once you've signed in successfully, Android will automatically set up your new Google account.

Set Up the New Google Account

To customize which account data Android syncs, return to Settings > Accounts, then tap Google and the account you'd like to manage. Under Account sync, you can toggle various Google services.

To remove an account, tap the Remove Account button.

This process also works for Google Apps for Work accounts.

Which Apps Does This Affect and How?

The sync settings shown above reveal that adding a Google account affects several apps. Your Google account connects to the following apps and features:

  • Calendar
  • Chrome
  • Contacts
  • Docs
  • Drive
  • Gmail
  • Google Fit data
  • Google News
  • Google Play
  • Google TV
  • Keep Notes
  • People details
  • Play Games Cloud Save
  • Sheets
  • Tasks in Calendar
  • and possibly more, depending on the apps you have installed

In addition, you'll see a change on any other apps that support Google login. Let's see how this affects some standard apps.

Gmail

If you chose to sync your Gmail account, you'll now see two or more accounts listed in the Gmail app. To switch between inboxes, tap your profile icon in the top-right.

You can customize inbox and notification settings via the account settings menu. With Gmail open, tap the hamburger icon in the top-left, then scroll down to the very bottom of the list of labels and tap Settings. Select the account for which you'd like to adjust settings, and make your changes.

If you encounter problems, it's easy to fix Android email sync issues.

Chrome

In Chrome, you can only sync one account at a time. Tap the three-dot icon in the top right, go to Settings, and tap Sync to review your sync settings. Back on the Settings screen, you'll see a list of all your accounts when you tap the main account, but you can't switch between them or make individual settings.

To use multiple Chrome profiles on Android, you'll have to use a tool like Parallel Space. What you can choose, however, is which account to sync Chrome with.

Go to Settings, tap Sync, and select Sign out and turn off sync. Checking the option to Also clear your Chrome data from this device is optional.

When you Turn on sync again, you can choose a different account for your Chrome browser. When you do that and didn't clear the data earlier, you'll be asked whether you want to combine your data or keep them separate.

What's good to know is that throughout this process, you won't lose your open browser tabs.

Meet

Meet is replacing Hangouts for video meetings. And it's one of the easiest Google tools to switch accounts in. Just open the app, tap your profile icon in the top right, select the desired account, and join a meeting with it.

Duo

Duo is another alternative to Hangouts that enables FaceTime-like video chats between Android and iPhone users. While Hangouts supports multiple accounts (see below), Duo is tied to your phone number, and you can only associate it with one Google account at a time. However, you can switch accounts.

To switch accounts in Duo, open the app and tap the three-dot menu in the top-right. Select Settings, tap Account, and choose Remove Google Account from Duo. Now go back to Settings and tap Add Account. If you have more than one account, you'll see a dropdown list with all the accounts you can add. Choose one, Agree, and you're done.

Hangouts

Much like Gmail, the Hangouts app will show you a list of your accounts, so you can manage multiple identities.

Via Settings, you can make individual choices for each account. For example, you could choose to receive vibration and sound notifications for one account but only vibration for another.

Calendar

Your calendar can display events from multiple sources. Not only can you manage multiple calendars under one account, you can manage them from multiple accounts.

Open the app, tap the hamburger icon, and browse through the list of calendars under each of your Google accounts. While you can't disable entire accounts here (you'd have to do this under Android's Google account settings, as described above), you can deselect all calendars listed under a specific profile.

When you scroll down all the way and tap Settings, you can select each calendar and edit its individual settings, such as color or default notifications.

Play Store

The Play Store also supports multiple accounts. Tap your profile icon in the top right to see your account options. Here, you can switch between accounts using the drop-down selection.

Go to Manage apps & device > Manage to review all the apps you've ever installed on any account; just switch between Installed and Not installed. This is an interesting Google Play feature for when you're using the same account on two different devices or moving an account to a new device.

To remove apps from this list, check the box on the right and click the trash icon in the top right.

Thus, this is where you can find apps you've used in the past, possibly on another device, and install them. Unfortunately, you can no longer bulk-install apps from this screen.

Other Apps

Managing multiple accounts in Google Drive, Keep, and other Google apps is very similar to what we described above. Contacts from all your Google accounts and other non-Google accounts like Facebook and WhatsApp should automatically sync with your Contacts app.

And if you're interested, learn how to set one Google account as the default for signing in to apps.

Can I Do the Same for Other Accounts?

Yes, but not for many. Facebook, Skype, Twitter, WhatsApp, and Dropbox, for example, only allow a single user ID per device. You can set up additional accounts for other email clients, and other apps may also support multiple IDs.

However, you can run multiple copies of the same app on Android using a third-party app called Parallel Space. You can then associate each app with a different user account.

How Do You Manage Your Android Apps?

It's quite common to have multiple identities or email accounts associated with different projects or jobs. Thankfully, Google made it easy to manage all your identities on a single device.