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No more alarm wars: Android 15 will rescue shared tablets
- Android 15 QPR1 prepares to let you mute alarms that go off in the background even if you’re not signed into the user that set the alarm.
- This could come in handy if you’re sharing a tablet with other people.
- Previously, you had to switch to the user that actually set the alarm in order to mute or dismiss it.
While most Android devices are only used by one person, there are many Android tablets designed to be shared among members of a family. Thanks to Android’s built-in support for multiple users, it’s easy to set up a single tablet so that multiple people can have their own apps and files. However, trouble arises when an alarm goes off in the background. Without switching to the user where the alarm is originating, it’s impossible to mute or dismiss the alarm. Thankfully, Google is working on a fix for this problem in the latest Android 15 release.
Starting with Android 15, the operating system has a way to handle alarms that go off in the background. If one user sets an alarm that goes off while another user is signed in, then the current user will get a notification that lets them mute the alarm or switch users to deal with it. The addition of this simple notification makes it so you don’t have to change users to mute or dismiss the alarm, which might not even be possible if you don’t have the PIN, password, or pattern used to unlock that user.
Although code for this feature can be found in Android 15, it isn’t yet enabled, not even in the latest Android 15 QPR1 Beta 2. I had to manually activate the feature to get this notification to appear. Given the simplicity of the feature and the fact that it’s already fully working, I expect it’ll go live soon, though.
In the past year, Google has significantly improved multiuser support on Android. In last year’s Android 14 release, for example, Google added support for a new profile type that’s designed for app cloning. More recently, the company introduced a new “private” profile type that forms the backbone of the Private Space feature in Android 15. Technically, “profiles” and “users” are considered two separate things, but these features all impact the shared device experience, so it’s good to see any improvements be made regardless.