
Why Don’t Smartphones Have A “Guest Mode”? - jnuss
http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/04/why-dont-smartphones-have-a-guest-mode/
======
jerrya
Somewhat related: I've long wondered why ATM cards don't have something
similar.

1234 is my regular PIN. 1235 is my help I'm being robbed PIN -- it dispenses
the cash, calls the cops, and tags the video.

~~~
Lost_BiomedE
My girlfriend worked at bank that did this. The alert PIN was your PIN
backwards. I don't know if they still do this or not.

~~~
samwillis
I heard about this before. According to Snopes it's false although it may have
been implemented in A few places.

<http://www.snopes.com/business/bank/pinalert.asp>

<http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATM_SafetyPIN_software>

~~~
rplnt
Thanks for the wiki article. I've heard about it and was pretty sure it's a
hoax (mostly because of the palindromes).

------
ConstantineXVI
I'm more bewildered to why no tablets seem to have multi-user functionality.
In my experience, tablets get shared far more often than phones.

~~~
walexander
I work for a tablet manufacturer, and I spoke to an Android product manager at
I/O last year about this.

According to him, this is a feature that pops up once in awhile, but they have
a long list of stuff to do and this is just one of those things that always
gets bumped out.

From my perspective as a platform dev, I'd like to get into some of the
technical problems with changing this, but I could end up breaking some NDAs
or something. I'll just say, when you start mucking around with adding login
code, file system changes, and the current dmcrypt encryption, you hit lots of
fun design problems.

~~~
dhughes
There are two your account and the hidden root account ;)

~~~
DaveMebs
I think the concerns are the interactions between user accounts. I don't think
anyone is too worried about the hidden root account having access to your user
account data.

~~~
spwmoni
Hence the winky face.

------
wh-uws
These guys are kind of working in this: <http://www.famigo.com/>

Their approach is targeted at kids though, I'd love to see someone tackle the
general purpose approach.

Sounds like a great project for someone with a lot of free time. I rememeber
hearing that the guy who came up with what is currently the ios notification
style was hired by Apple after his jailbroken hack.

The void is wide open for someone to solve this well and be rewarded for it

~~~
Jun8
I have heard many, many times from parents whose kids play with their iPhones,
iPads, etc. that they would like to have this mode where only the current app
is active, WiFi is disabled, etc. Kids are quick to figure out how to buy
extra stuff from within the app.

------
forrestthewoods
"Why Don’t Smartphones Have A Guest Mode?"

Because dealing with multiple profiles and/or different profile types is a
fucking huge giant pain the ass and a monumental amount of work! Xbox has
local, guest, live silver, and live gold accounts. Dealing with all the
different profiles and switching between is a nightmare. Urgh, no thanks.

~~~
yock
At least two of the three most prominent smart phone roms are backed by
operating systems that have long histories of (more or less successful)
profile switching. It might in fact be a difficult problem, but it's one that
has serviceable solutions and has for some time.

~~~
mechanical_fish
No, difficult for the _users_ , not the operating systems.

Operating systems have had user switching for years. But I'll bet only a small
minority of Mac users even know this is possible, and even fewer have ever
used it.

------
baddox
The "two PINs" idea would also be great for when a police officer pulls you
over and asks you to hand over and unlock your phone. With the proper
encryption you could even have plausible deniability.

~~~
pavel_lishin
Haven't people suggested this with regards to TrueCrypt's hidden volumes, with
"rubber-hose cryptography" being the most common answer, and "yeah, well,
prove that this is your REAL phone unlock code" being the second most common.

~~~
tadfisher
Prove that it isn't, officer.

~~~
lsb
No cellphones are allowed in top secret military locations in the US, because
all can be remotely signalled to start recording audio. We know they'll turn a
phone into a bug if they need to, so it's foolish to assume they wouldn't be
able to get the real PIN.

~~~
schiffern
Do you have any evidence that indicates that this is the reason?

A much more likely explanation for the policy involves abuse by the user,
either intentionally or unintentionally. Cameras and USB sticks are similarly
restricted.

------
tomkarlo
This is also why any app that handles sensitive information (including,
arguably, the photo and video galleries) on a phone should have at least the
_option_ to set an in-app PIN that's required before it opens up.

Lots of folks hand their smartphone to their kids to play games and even if
there's nothing sensitive on there, they might have things they don't want
deleted like treasured photos and videos.

~~~
joezydeco
Hell, I'd be happy if iOS had a way to lock down the Springboard so my kids
can't screw up my home screen every time they get their hands on a device.
Does anyone else come back to find all their apps dragged into countless
random folders?

------
there
there are at least a few big companies already doing virtualization with
android to separate business and personal modes so that corporate email and
other apps can be quarantined off with a secure password, leaving personal
email and games to run in a separate environment that may not require as much
security to unlock.

presumably the same technology could be used to provide "normal" and guest
environments.

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydXJjCN2G-A>

------
rocketsfan
I'd benefit from a "Driving Mode" on my phone. If John, Rachel, or Stan calls,
auto-text them: "I'm driving, can't talk". Everyone else goes straight to
voicemail. If they send me a text within 5 minutes of that call (must be
serious), make the font huge so I can read it in .5 seconds on my console.
Hide all other texts.

I'd like to be truly responsible and just turn my phone off, but I don't to
allow for those few times when there actually is something important.

~~~
randomdata
Siri is already the "Driving Mode" feature on the iPhone.

Hooking it up to the stereo system makes it feel like it is part of the
vehicle. Some day, when I am feeling adventurous, I will wire the otherwise
useless OnStar button to trigger it to complete the "factory look."

------
sandGorgon
HTC Sense has something called modes - which allow you to put your phone in
profiles that switch data off, or the keyboard off, etc. They recently
acquired Inquisitive Minds for a "kids mode"
([http://www.androidguys.com/2011/10/18/htc-acquires-
inquisiti...](http://www.androidguys.com/2011/10/18/htc-acquires-inquisitive-
minds-developer-of-zoodles/)) which is pretty much guest mode.

------
tzury
Ironically, Arrington still "writes" for Techcrunch

<https://twitter.com/#!/arrington/status/27763718700>

~~~
eneveu
The tweet seems quite old, though: "9:43 PM - 18 Oct 10"

~~~
tzury
that was my point, he tweeted this long ago, while he was _in_ TC, and yet,
his voice is echoed...

------
beagle3
Web browsers have been around since 92, first usable guest mode [1] on a web
browser appeared 2005 or so. Give the phones a little more time, and it will
get there too.

[1] mozilla had multiple profile support since forever, but it required you to
restart the browser with a command line argument, or requires you to pick a
profile _every time_ , and even then it's not "guest" profile -- it's another
profile with history and all. When I needed multiple profiles, it was always
easier to set up another user on Linux. [On windows, at least in the 2000
days, the new browser would defer to the old one that was already on screen
even if they were RunAs different users -- a different "desktop session" was
required for separation. bleh]

------
conradev
I was going to write a tweak for iOS to do something like this, with behavior
similar to that of the built in Camera shortcut from the lockscreen.

1\. You are using an app

2\. You activate 'Guest mode' using a button press, swipe, tap, etc.
(configurable)

3\. If the user hits the home button, it redirects to the lockscreen instead
of the homescreen (much like the Camera application does in lock-mode)

4\. Instead of the camera icon on the lockscreen when you double tap, it is
the icon of the locked-in application. (You can tap it to resume use of the
locked-in application)

5\. To disable this guest mode, you simply unlock the device with your
passcode.

So, when a friend asks "Hey can I check my email?", you can open Safari,
enable this guest mode, and hand the phone to him, no worries.

What do you think?

~~~
adavies42
> So, when a friend asks "Hey can I check my email?", you can open Safari,
> enable this guest mode, and hand the phone to him, no worries.

can you provide a sandboxed environment? he can't have access to any of my
persistent Safari data (autofill/bookmarks/history/cookies/dbs/etc.), and any
he creates should be wiped, probably on return to the lockscreen. all other
forms of app switching (e.g. open a pdf url, then "open in"
iBooks/goodReader/whatever) will need to be blocked as well. will also have to
block the app tray, the notification center, pop-up/banner notifications,
Siri, and possibly the phone. (could experiment with blocking badges and
alerts but not sounds, since that only reveals the fact that an
email/text/etc. was received, not any specific information about it.) might
conceivably need to block all background app network traffic, tho i'm not sure
if that's snoopable from inside safari.

basically os x guest mode

~~~
conradev
That would be the only issue with something like this. The number of system
features is finite and they can be disabled each in their own respect, but
partitioning a guest from a user's data in an arbitrary application would
prove challenging.

~~~
adavies42
yeah, by the time i got to the end of the list, it was pretty clear how hard
it would be to do it right....

------
badclient
Yes, yes from a guy who has to nervously hope that as his Dad looks up
something on his phone while having family dinner, he doesn't end up in my SMS
or Photos app. It'd ruin the dinner. And some.

------
zacharyvoase
As far as I'm concerned the only 'Guest Mode' I need on my phone is the
emergency call screen. I'm totally willing to be the 'weirdo' who won't let
someone use his phone.

~~~
z2amiller
I was thinking of something related to this earlier today. One thing I'd
really like from the emergency call screen is to allow me to tag several of my
contacts as emergency contacts. That way if my phone is stolen, or I am hurt
in an accident, the list of proper people to notify is very apparent.

~~~
evandena
Yeah, the old ICE contact.

------
Zarathust
The reason I don't log on someone else's phone is not because they don't want
me to, is because I don't want to! Just the same reason why I usually don't
log in on an untrusted computer.

Maybe just for browsing the internet it would be allright, but I won't hand
over my passwords. Isn't there any keylogger yet for android/ios? You don't
even need to go by the store/marketplace, just local, developper stuff and
there you go. Do you want to log on my machine?

------
jiggy2011
Smartphones seem to have mostly sacrificed some of their security for
convenience.

Take Windows for example, sure you _can_ setup multiple user accounts with
different levels of privilege , access to website and apps etc but how many
people outside of a corporate or academic setting actually _use_ this?

Whenever I borrow someones laptop they just use their own login, sometimes I
find porn in their Internet history but at the end of the day who cares?

Perhaps this is more of a problem for people with kids who might want to use
the internet themselves but when their child uses it they don't want them to
have access to certain sites or see that their parent has accessed certain
sites.

One issue I have with android is that when I clear the history in the browser
and delete all cookie etc etc.

If I hit the back button it still goes _back_ to whatever I visited last ,
also if I goto google and tap the search bar all my previous searches come up.
It's not really very privacy friendly.

Hopefully this problem will pass once everyone has a smartphone so they don't
need to borrow someone elses.

~~~
AndrewDucker
My girlfriend and I both have logins on each other's laptops, so that we can
both have our apps set up the way we like them. With bookmarks and history
syncing between them, this makes life much easier.

~~~
jiggy2011
It does, I have multiple logins for my PC including a guest one.

Most people don't seem to really understand the benefit of doing this though,
I've seen couples argue because they both keep changing preferences on a
shared computer when multiple logins would solve their problems.

------
buster
Users can, when choosing the right ROM.. hooray for choice!

Guest mode: enable the “Guest Mode” toggle in the panel, and your calls and
text messages logs will be hidden, and all installed applications cannot be
removed. You may have a try when you need to show your phone to guests or
children.

<http://en.miui.com/a-10.html>

------
nextparadigms
The guest mode is a great idea. But for now, if you have very private stuff on
your Android phone, you can lock down on an app-per-app basis. This could be a
little inconvenient, though, and either you always keep them password
protected, or you have to remember to protect them before you give the phone
to someone.

------
sherwin
This is something I've wondered quite a bit also. ChromeOS already has this
feature -- it's the idea of the device simply acting as a terminal, with all
user data stored in the cloud.

Also, I'm a bit afraid implementing full-featured multiple user sessions
(similar to a desktop OS) would lead to a lot more bloat.

------
hsshah
Seems like Apple is planning to implement multi-user mode in iOS with face
recognition based login ie a user just enter his PIN, however, the camera
detects which account to load. (IMHO, more secure than the current Android
implementation) Article talking about related patent:
[http://www.cultofmac.com/137393/apple-patent-details-
facial-...](http://www.cultofmac.com/137393/apple-patent-details-facial-
recognition-plans-for-macs-ios-devices/)

I would imagine at that time, they might support Guest logins.

EDIT: the implementation detail of Face recognition talked above is my own
take on how it should be done. Not suggested by the referenced article.

------
nl
VMWare has virtualization working on Android, which supports this in a heavy-
weight kind of way. See [http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/15/vmware-android-
handset-vi...](http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/15/vmware-android-handset-
virtualization-hands-on/) and
[http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2011/09/samsung-
boosts-...](http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2011/09/samsung-boosts-
vmware-plan-to-virtualize-android-phones-tablets.ars)

The use-case for it usually suggested is one VM for work, one for personal
use, but it could be used for this scenario too.

------
fierarul
[http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/201x/2010/10/07/Robot-
Road...](http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/201x/2010/10/07/Robot-Road#p-1)

Quote: Which has revealed a feature that the Tab needs: a button in Gmail
called “in strange hands”. The device is profoundly shareable, but mine has my
Google email, full of threads that are distinctly not for public eyes. So I
need to switch to disable that while letting people look at interesting web
sites or play games or check stock prices or whatever. End Quote

------
gulbrandr
On Android there is an app called "Hide it Pro" [1] (aka Audio Manager) that
allows you to hide pictures and videos. The app disguises itself as an audio
manager in the app drawer. To access the hidden files you have to type a PIN
code. There is also an escape PIN if you get caught hiding files. Clever idea.

[1]
[https://market.android.com/details?id=com.smartanuj.hideitpr...](https://market.android.com/details?id=com.smartanuj.hideitpro)

------
unabridged
i love that almost everything in this thread would be added shortly if we had
control of our phones. why isnt there a bigger open hardware phone movement?
how about a new GPLv4? GPLed software can only be shipped on GPLed hardware.
it can be installed later but the user gets to see an ad explaining what they
cannot do with their phone, and possibly alternate carriers that support open
hardware.

------
dutchbrit
I've been thinking about this a lot recently. Guest account too, but mainly
other user accounts. Not for phones but for tablets, these tend to get shared
more - there's a way to have multiple user accounts on iPad but this requires
jailbreaking, something I'm not too fond of. It'd be nice that each family
member can use their own instances of mail and safari etc...

------
industrialwaste
The MIUI rom for Android sort of does this. It has a privacy mode which hides
calls and text messages and locks down the homescreen.

------
Gustomaximus
I would take this one step further and have smartphones/tablets with cloud
based "login" for your accounts, apps, preferences etc. While you would
probably only use it a few times a year it would be great when getting a new
phone, swapping phones with friends to try them out or to borrow a phone if
you are out of juice.

------
jwallaceparker
Interesting idea, but I don't see many use cases.

Are people really handing their phones out that often?

I only hand my phone to someone else when:

* I've asked them to take a photo of me.

* They're riding shotgun in my car and need to call a contact or navigate with info readily available on my phone.

Neither situation is risk for people snooping around.

~~~
cookiecaper
It happens to me often enough. Maybe it's just if you have friends who are
interested in gadgets, but they will usually say things like, "Oh, you got a
new phone? Can I see it?", "Oh, you installed a new ROM? Can I see it?", "Oh,
I was wondering how this worked on that phone, can I try it on yours?" All of
these are generic requests that just involve tapping around a lot to get a
feel for the device, and they're all totally valid requests that one wants to
fulfill to help his friends experience more stuff.

Also, some people just don't consider their phones private and don't
understand why anyone else would. My parents or siblings sometimes want to
flip through Gallery to see the newest pictures of my children, friends, or
co-workers.

A couple misplaced photos can be quite the liability in a situation like
that...

------
jimenaescolulle
Guest Mode has already been requested by many people:
<http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=7472>

------
BadassFractal
Probably for the same reason a lot of other good features don't get
implemented: there are higher more impactful features to be implemented first,
a bigger bang for the company's buck.

------
bockris
And this is why me and my family get way more use out of a Chromebook rather
than our Android tablet.

Please make Android grow multi-user capabilities or give me ChromeOS in a
tablet format.

------
pinaceae
...and this is why developers should never be in charge of usability/design.

simplification enhances usability. the vast majority of smartphone and tablet
users are _happy_ that all that complicated IT/nerd stuff went away on their
devices.

the complications you would introduce by user switching are big. you need to
add UI elements to tell the user at all times in which mode they are, you need
new dialogs to switch, etc etc. the android status bar already looks like a
badly maintained win xp install with all that crap in it.

built by developers for developers. brrr.

------
ravivyas
The idea sounds awesome... but how many on us even have the guest account
enabled on our laptops?

------
Too
Why don't computers have a "party mode"? (locking everything but youtube and
spotify).

------
AndrewWarner
My Mac has a guest mode, but I never use it. Do you?

~~~
ghurlman
Every time I have guests at the house that want to use the computer for some
reason. That's what it's for -- why _not_ use it?

------
rkon
Better yet, why hasn't anyone created an app that just _simulates_ a guest
mode? A launcher with two sets of home screens would be perfect. _Or_ , you
just disable your preferred launcher when handing your phone to a friend,
revealing the mostly barren stock screens. It's as simple as hiding icons,
since the apps might as well not exist if the icons aren't there (access
doesn't actually need to be explicitly forbidden, per se).

Maybe I'm missing something important here, but it seems many apps on the
Android market are just a few tweaks away from doing this already?

~~~
pyre
Not all games have a separation of user data. Some games basically only have
one save slot, so that starting a new game wipes out the save data.

~~~
freehunter
This caused me to be beat upside the head with a Gameboy repeatedly when I was
young when I hit "new game" on my cousin's Pokemon Red.

~~~
HackR
If you were my cousin who did that to me, you wouldn't exist today, to put it
lightly.

~~~
nopassrecover
This was done to me by cousins and brothers maybe 4-5 times (with very well
developed games before each time). I understand the frustration (although what
you describe sounds a bit full on) particularly as I'm pretty sure you had to
start a new game then save.

------
Helianthus
Hell, I want a guest mode on my computer. Instead I need to just have netbooks
available for when company wants to check their email.

~~~
jaylevitt
What kind of computer do you have that doesn't have a guest mode? Windows,
Mac/UNIX and Linux have all been multi-user either from the beginning or for
decades.

~~~
Helianthus
Yeah, but then I have to have a "guest" log-in. My computers are always on, so
people never feel bad about asking to use them, and I feel it's unnecessary
and unsmooth to log out.

Since I've already been perfectly demanding|whining about a feature I'd like
to have, what I _really_ want is to just click a program that boots up a vm
with the same OS, but only the browser ready to go with a fresh lack of
cookies, history, etc.

IS THAT REALLY SO MUCH TO ASK? </overdramatic>

~~~
AndrewDucker
why would you log out?

In Windows you'd hit Windows-L, which would take you to the login screen, and
then they'd click "Guest" (or whatever alternate login you've set up). You'd
still be logged in, and when they were done (or were giving it back to you for
five minutes) you press Windows-L again and choose your own login to switch
back to your still-running programs.

I'd be astounding if Linux didn't have an equivalent.

------
gcb
a phone in guest mode would be totally useless.

case 1: no apps. guest has to install apps. will guest have a itunes/android
market account? does he enter his Credit card to buy paid ones he want to use?

case 2: apps with no data from real user. He opens up foursquare/yelp to look
for a restaurant... has to create profile

~~~
schiffern
Looking at the mocked-up screenshots in the article, he's proposing that the
user customize which apps are available. Note "Configure Guest Access" in
Settings.app.

------
aen1
For the guy with friends that he doesn't trust. Actually, for the guy who
_thinks_ he has friends.

------
benvanderbeek
Privacy is important. But why not just avoid keeping weird stuff on your
phone? Keep it somewhere else. Or say, "hold on let me log out of my bank app"
or something.

~~~
forensic
>keep it somewhere else

Where? Keep my naked girlfriend pics in a recipe box? Wtf are you even saying?

I'd rather not turn into a dull prude just because apple is too lazy to
implement a guest account on their unix OS.

I'm trying to imagine how dull and colorless your life must be. I took the
pictures with my phone. The obvious place to keep them is on my phone.

~~~
benvanderbeek
So the civil answer to my question "why not just avoid keeping weird stuff on
your phone?"

is: "I keep naked girlfriend pics on my iPhone. I don't think that's weird,
but I don't want someone to see them."

I see your point. I apologize for using the word "weird." I assume that's what
the downvotes were for.

~~~
forensic
Civil answers are overrated. I'm really sick of corporate leaders (e.g. You)
telling me I should change my life to suit them. Their job is to accommodate
the customer regardless of how weird my hobbies may be.

~~~
benvanderbeek
"corporate leaders (e.g. You)"

I'm honored, and confused, that you would consider me a corporate leader.

Like I said, I see your point. And if you look at my comment, it was in the
form of a question, not an imperative.

