A developer has already confirmed this on the Android issue tracker

Aug 7, 2014 08:54 GMT  ·  By

One of the features that owners of Android-based smartphones haven’t had access to is support for multiple user accounts on the same handset, but it seems that this is set to change soon.

As it turns out, Google is going to make the capability available in Android L, which is the next major release of the mobile operating system, set to become available sometime this fall.

Users have been long complaining about the fact that Android does not offer the functionality on smartphones, and one of them took the matter to the Android issue tracker.

Shortly after said user posted there, a developer responded, informing that the functionality had already been implemented in the OS.

“The development team has implemented this feature and it will be available as a part of the next public build,” said reply reads.

Basically, this means that Android L, which is, in fact, the next update for the Android operating system, will provide smartphone users with the feature.

As Android Police notes, Google had confirmed plans to add support for multiple users on Android before, but it has released the functionality only for tablets as of now.

That happened in Android 4.2, while Android 4.3 brought along various improvements to the implementation, though it still left handsets out of it.

Should the functionality arrive in Android L, it will certainly make a lot of users very happy, regardless of whether enterprise customers or not.

Some of those to benefit from the feature are users on a budget, especially in markets where the same smartphone is used by the entire family, as each member will be able to set up an account in a personal manner.

Enterprise users will also have a lot to gain from the functionality, since they will be able to customize both a personal and a work account on the same smartphone.

Considering the fact that many businesses allow their employees to bring their own devices to the corporate environment, it’s clear that being able to set up multiple accounts on the same phone is a great feature for them.

For the time being, however, Google hasn’t provided an official announcement on the availability of support for multiple accounts on smartphones starting with Android L, and we’ll have to wait for that formal confirmation to arrive to make sure that this will indeed happen.

As mentioned above, Android L is expected to start rolling out sometime this fall, maybe as soon as September, yet no specific availability date has been provided as of now. Stay tuned for more on this.