6 ms·

Still no ability to have separate accounts on an ipad... I sort of understand that a phone is a single user OS, but the ipad most certainly should be a multi us

by l72 4y ago

Still no ability to have separate accounts on an ipad... I sort of understand that a phone is a single user OS, but the ipad most certainly should be a multi user OS.

patrickserrano 4y ago
If you don't mind using MDM you can get something akin to roaming profiles on iPads. It's an enterprise feature, but it was introduced sometime during iOS 13. I agree though, native multi-user support would be great. Though, I'd hope it's better than what we got on tvOS.
- sebazzz 4y ago
  Don’t act like it is either easy or free. You need a verifyable company, and the iCloud accounts need to be managed as well. They can’t be personal or manually created. It is not a viable solution for either the average user or the advanced user.
amelius 4y ago
Apple's products are closer to a personal computer than most PCs ever were ...
- derefr 4y ago
  "User accounts" in the security sense, maybe isn't the right abstraction. Have you tried logging in with multiple accounts on a Nintendo Switch? You're sort of just logged into all of them at once; and when you launch a given app/game, it asks you which profile you want to launch it under. To me, that'd be the perfect multi-user experience for iPad. Any user can unlock it with their own biometrics/credentials; once unlocked, that user can then act as any user that has a profile on the device.
  - josephg 4y ago
    When would you select user? The ipad is designed to swap between apps way more frequently than you swap games on the switch. If you have to select user every time you swap apps on the ipad, it would be horribly annoying.
    - derefr 4y ago
      Probably only as a double-check if the iPad detects that it's been handed to a different person without being locked. In most cases you'd want to continue under the assumption that the user who unlocked the device wants to open things as themselves. Mind you, the Switch has to do user-switching only at app startup time, because it's an effectively single-tasking OS. Given that you can be running tons of apps (and instances of apps) at the same time on an iPad, there are many other UI possibilities that synergize with an explicit user-chooser. Examples: - You know the app groups in the new macOS/iPadOS? Imagine a user profile as an app-group-group (in iOS) or a group of spaces (in macOS.) Do the slow-swipe-up-from-the-bottom thing again when you're already in the app chooser, and you get the profile chooser. - Some gesture you can do while in an app, that means "give me this same app, but viewed as a different user" — which is like a retroactive version of the Switch user-chooser thing. If other users already had the same app open, it'd work like Expose/Mission Control for seeing what their instance of the app looks like. And, as an optimization, apps that detect that you've user-switched away from them soon after launch, when they're still in their toplevel view, could take that as a signal to quit (as they'd assume that you just meant to open the app as a different user.)
      - josephg 4y ago
        > Probably only as a double-check if the iPad detects that it's been handed to a different person without being locked. Huh? How would the ipad detect that? > - Some gesture you can do while in an app, that means "give me this same app, but viewed as a different user" — which is like a retroactive version of the Switch user-chooser thing That sounds horribly confusing and complicated. And it doesn't even address the security problem where you don't want other users to see your stuff. (Eg, my kids shouldn't see notifications for me, or be able to read my email). I agree that its possible (its software, anything is possible). But I think it would take serious design work to implement user switching like you're proposing in a way thats not horribly complicated. Probably the easiest way to do it would be at the unlock screen. Have the user lock their ipad then unlock it as a different user via a different profile attached to the fingerprint sensor.
Gigachad 4y ago
There will never be multi user support on the iPad until the iPad has some real competition. Apple has absolutely no incentive to invest resources in to multi user when it’s much more likely that you will buy two iPads than buy an android tablet.
- Terretta 4y ago
  They invested the resources to make it already exist: https://developer.apple.com/education/shared-ipad/ https://developer.apple.com/education/shared-ipad/
  - dkonofalski 4y ago
    That's not the same thing, as I've replied to you elsewhere.
  - jdeibele 4y ago
    Yes, but that doesn't work for having one iPad shared by family. That's about writing software to be used for shared iPads. iPads can be shared in a business or school setting and going through the administrative steps to implement that. https://support.apple.com/guide/deployment/shared-ipad-overview-dep9a34c2ba2/web https://support.apple.com/guide/deployment/shared-ipad-overv... talks about how to do it using a Mobile Device Management (MDM) server. There are various services not from Apple that provide free servers but we've seen over and over how a free service goes paid or is simply cancelled. There's nothing on the iPad like Macs have for allowing multiple users.
  - Gigachad 4y ago
    The main limitation I have heard is it requires apps to store everything in the cloud. The multi user system is basically a single sign on for the apps and requires all this infrastructure to power it.
K7PJP 4y ago
I’m starting to think this will never happen.
gnicholas 4y ago
This would be great, but it would never be announced in Sept. It would be announced at WWDC, when they talk about the new features of the upcoming OSes.
quitit 4y ago
Currently hardware-wise they're designed for a single user experience. E.g. the limit of face-ids in the secure enclave, or more trivially they don't come with a lot of storage to host multiple photo/music/app libraries without having to put every little thing in the cloud.
- makeitdouble 4y ago
  The pro line is well into the desktop class territory on any hardware requirement, be it CPU, memory, storage etc. At this point, any feature that exists on their laptops is lacking on the iPad only by choice.
  - quitit 4y ago
    I'm pretty sure the discussion is about multi-user support on the current Pro line-up? So let me ask you directly: How would you propose to get around the limitations of the secure enclave for Face-ID on existing iPads?
    - makeitdouble 4y ago
      Allow as many Face-ID registration as there is users ? TBH I’m not sure what you see as an issue, and why it couldn’t be the same secure enclave management as on the MBP with touch-ID.
      - quitit 4y ago
        There is a hardware limit, just like there is with Touch-ID. I don't really see the point in continuing with this if you're going to argue in bad faith - trivial research would have revealed that and other limitations which would prevent this on the current line-up. Now I'm not saying that Apple can't produce an iPad in the future that delivers on the right experience mix in a multi-user capable setting, but that's not what you're asking for - I've provided just a few of the mant kinds of limitations that will degrade the user experience in a way that makes clear that Apple aren't just trying to juice their customers. So the answer here is neither "Apple should just make it happen", nor "You should just buy a second iPad" - the answer is: you should buy the tablet that gives you everything you want, or learn how to share, I rdgaf.
Terretta 4y ago
This exists. https://developer.apple.com/education/shared-ipad/ https://developer.apple.com/education/shared-ipad/
- dkonofalski 4y ago
  That's not the same thing as they're talking about. The account sharing on education devices, which is what you linked, clears the device every time you switch a user and every user has the same apps installed. What the OP is asking for is individual user profiles that let each person customize the device for their own account.
jsz0 4y ago
I wonder how many children have been traumatized by accidentally seeing their parents Messages on a shared iPad.
- gw99 4y ago
  Can confirm my kids have and it wasn’t even a shared one. Ergo I’d rather not have shared devices anyway. It was hell when we shared a family windows 2000 computer back in the day.

by l72 4y ago

Still no ability to have separate accounts on an ipad... I sort of understand that a phone is a single user OS, but the ipad most certainly should be a multi user OS.

patrickserrano 4y ago

If you don't mind using MDM you can get something akin to roaming profiles on iPads. It's an enterprise feature, but it was introduced sometime during iOS 13. I agree though, native multi-user support would be great. Though, I'd hope it's better than what we got on tvOS.

sebazzz 4y ago
Don’t act like it is either easy or free. You need a verifyable company, and the iCloud accounts need to be managed as well. They can’t be personal or manually created. It is not a viable solution for either the average user or the advanced user.

amelius 4y ago

Apple's products are closer to a personal computer than most PCs ever were ...

derefr 4y ago
"User accounts" in the security sense, maybe isn't the right abstraction. Have you tried logging in with multiple accounts on a Nintendo Switch? You're sort of just logged into all of them at once; and when you launch a given app/game, it asks you which profile you want to launch it under. To me, that'd be the perfect multi-user experience for iPad. Any user can unlock it with their own biometrics/credentials; once unlocked, that user can then act as any user that has a profile on the device.
- josephg 4y ago
  When would you select user? The ipad is designed to swap between apps way more frequently than you swap games on the switch. If you have to select user every time you swap apps on the ipad, it would be horribly annoying.
  - derefr 4y ago
    Probably only as a double-check if the iPad detects that it's been handed to a different person without being locked. In most cases you'd want to continue under the assumption that the user who unlocked the device wants to open things as themselves. Mind you, the Switch has to do user-switching only at app startup time, because it's an effectively single-tasking OS. Given that you can be running tons of apps (and instances of apps) at the same time on an iPad, there are many other UI possibilities that synergize with an explicit user-chooser. Examples: - You know the app groups in the new macOS/iPadOS? Imagine a user profile as an app-group-group (in iOS) or a group of spaces (in macOS.) Do the slow-swipe-up-from-the-bottom thing again when you're already in the app chooser, and you get the profile chooser. - Some gesture you can do while in an app, that means "give me this same app, but viewed as a different user" — which is like a retroactive version of the Switch user-chooser thing. If other users already had the same app open, it'd work like Expose/Mission Control for seeing what their instance of the app looks like. And, as an optimization, apps that detect that you've user-switched away from them soon after launch, when they're still in their toplevel view, could take that as a signal to quit (as they'd assume that you just meant to open the app as a different user.)
    - josephg 4y ago
      > Probably only as a double-check if the iPad detects that it's been handed to a different person without being locked. Huh? How would the ipad detect that? > - Some gesture you can do while in an app, that means "give me this same app, but viewed as a different user" — which is like a retroactive version of the Switch user-chooser thing That sounds horribly confusing and complicated. And it doesn't even address the security problem where you don't want other users to see your stuff. (Eg, my kids shouldn't see notifications for me, or be able to read my email). I agree that its possible (its software, anything is possible). But I think it would take serious design work to implement user switching like you're proposing in a way thats not horribly complicated. Probably the easiest way to do it would be at the unlock screen. Have the user lock their ipad then unlock it as a different user via a different profile attached to the fingerprint sensor.

Gigachad 4y ago

There will never be multi user support on the iPad until the iPad has some real competition. Apple has absolutely no incentive to invest resources in to multi user when it’s much more likely that you will buy two iPads than buy an android tablet.

Terretta 4y ago
They invested the resources to make it already exist: https://developer.apple.com/education/shared-ipad/ https://developer.apple.com/education/shared-ipad/
- dkonofalski 4y ago
  That's not the same thing, as I've replied to you elsewhere.
- jdeibele 4y ago
  Yes, but that doesn't work for having one iPad shared by family. That's about writing software to be used for shared iPads. iPads can be shared in a business or school setting and going through the administrative steps to implement that. https://support.apple.com/guide/deployment/shared-ipad-overview-dep9a34c2ba2/web https://support.apple.com/guide/deployment/shared-ipad-overv... talks about how to do it using a Mobile Device Management (MDM) server. There are various services not from Apple that provide free servers but we've seen over and over how a free service goes paid or is simply cancelled. There's nothing on the iPad like Macs have for allowing multiple users.
- Gigachad 4y ago
  The main limitation I have heard is it requires apps to store everything in the cloud. The multi user system is basically a single sign on for the apps and requires all this infrastructure to power it.

K7PJP 4y ago

I’m starting to think this will never happen.

gnicholas 4y ago

This would be great, but it would never be announced in Sept. It would be announced at WWDC, when they talk about the new features of the upcoming OSes.

quitit 4y ago

Currently hardware-wise they're designed for a single user experience. E.g. the limit of face-ids in the secure enclave, or more trivially they don't come with a lot of storage to host multiple photo/music/app libraries without having to put every little thing in the cloud.

makeitdouble 4y ago
The pro line is well into the desktop class territory on any hardware requirement, be it CPU, memory, storage etc. At this point, any feature that exists on their laptops is lacking on the iPad only by choice.
- quitit 4y ago
  I'm pretty sure the discussion is about multi-user support on the current Pro line-up? So let me ask you directly: How would you propose to get around the limitations of the secure enclave for Face-ID on existing iPads?
  - makeitdouble 4y ago
    Allow as many Face-ID registration as there is users ? TBH I’m not sure what you see as an issue, and why it couldn’t be the same secure enclave management as on the MBP with touch-ID.
    - quitit 4y ago
      There is a hardware limit, just like there is with Touch-ID. I don't really see the point in continuing with this if you're going to argue in bad faith - trivial research would have revealed that and other limitations which would prevent this on the current line-up. Now I'm not saying that Apple can't produce an iPad in the future that delivers on the right experience mix in a multi-user capable setting, but that's not what you're asking for - I've provided just a few of the mant kinds of limitations that will degrade the user experience in a way that makes clear that Apple aren't just trying to juice their customers. So the answer here is neither "Apple should just make it happen", nor "You should just buy a second iPad" - the answer is: you should buy the tablet that gives you everything you want, or learn how to share, I rdgaf.

Terretta 4y ago

This exists. https://developer.apple.com/education/shared-ipad/ https://developer.apple.com/education/shared-ipad/

dkonofalski 4y ago
That's not the same thing as they're talking about. The account sharing on education devices, which is what you linked, clears the device every time you switch a user and every user has the same apps installed. What the OP is asking for is individual user profiles that let each person customize the device for their own account.

jsz0 4y ago

I wonder how many children have been traumatized by accidentally seeing their parents Messages on a shared iPad.

gw99 4y ago
Can confirm my kids have and it wasn’t even a shared one. Ergo I’d rather not have shared devices anyway. It was hell when we shared a family windows 2000 computer back in the day.