3 ms·
> One could create entirely separate accounts but it's high friction and IIRC the > same phone number (now a requirement) can only be used for 2-3 accounts. I
by bsammon 2y ago
> One could create entirely separate accounts but it's high friction and IIRC the
> same phone number (now a requirement) can only be used for 2-3 accounts.
I've wondered about this. Every Android/ChromeOS device I've ever bought, I had a new Google account created for it (during setup, instead of using an existing account), and only a few actually had phone numbers (I don't generally use smartphones for telephony). Is "Google account" synonymous with "GMail account" these days?
I've had this idea for an experiment where I get such a device (without a simcard), and see how many times I can iterate the Initialize-Device-With-New-Google-Acct-PowerWash-Repeat cycle, and how many Gmail accounts I would have as a result.
- sureglymop 2y agoWhy did you do that? Android doesn't require an account to work.
- exe34 2y agoI think it does if you want to install anything from the Play Store.
- gdevenyi 2y agoAurora store gets around that
- exe34 2y agothe search doesn't really work does it? you have to search on Google and then click on it to open with aurora. but you're right, it does help!
- gdevenyi 2y agoThe search worked for me to find a single app I needed when I was setting up a single-use tablet recently, but I haven't used it hugely beyond that. YMMV
- bsammon 2y ago(For both Android and ChromeOS) I thought it would be significantly easier to let it use a Google account, than it would be to make it proceed without one. Was I wrong? Serious question. Links to information would be appreciated, even/especially if it's a complex task to do this. (I never put a lot of effort into this, because having the Google account be anonymous/fake-named was generally tolerable for my privacy standards)