Android owners must swap hidden setting before letting anyone touch phone – never hand it over until you’ve made change

DON'T just hand your Android phone to friends, family, or colleagues without changing some key settings first.

It might seem harmless – but you don't want to risk them trawling through your personal info.

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Thankfully Google has built a special guest profile feature into Android.

It means that you can very quickly and easily toggle to a locked-down version of your phone that's fine for other people to use.

Google explains: "A guest profile is for someone using your device for a short time.

"Like a user, the guest profile has its own space on the device, but it's easier to delete this space when a guest is done with the device."

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Google says that the guest user won't be able to access all of the info on your phone.

HOW TO SWITCH TO GUEST USER ON ANDROID

First open up your Quick Settings menu.

Typically that means simply swiping down from the top of your screen.

You may need to swipe down a second time to access the full roster of Quick Settings.

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Then simply tap on the User icon and then choose Add Guest.

Once you've created a guest, you'll be able to return to the profile again in the future.

When you want to create a profile for a new guest, choose Start Over.

Or you can tap Yes, Continue to keep using the previous guest session.

Once a guest session is done, just go back into Quick Settings, tap on User, then select Remove Guest > Remove.

This will delete all of the data from the guest that was using your phone.

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HOW DO GUESTS WORK

Guests are like limited versions of regular Android user profiles.

So you can quickly set them up – and remove them just as easily.

They can sign into their own Google accounts, and use apps like Chrome or YouTube without logging in.

A guest won't be able to see your personal or private info.

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TRY A CHILD ACCOUNT TOO

You might not actually need a Guest User account – if you have a kid using an Android device then maybe a Child User is what you're looking for...

Here's Google's official guide:

You can create a Google Account for your child under 13 (or the applicable age in your country) and manage your child’s Google Account with Family Link.

With a supervised Google Account, your child gets access to Google products like Search, Chrome, and Gmail. You can set up parental controls to help supervise them.

It takes about 15 minutes to create your child's Google Account.

1. Go to the create your Google Account page.
2. To create your child’s account, follow the on-screen instructions.
   • You’ll enter info like your child’s name, the email address they want, and their birthday.
3. To provide parental consent for your child’s account, sign in with your own Google Account and choose your preferred way to give consent.

When you've made the account, you get a confirmation on the screen.

So it's the perfect way to let someone use your phone to, say, watch YouTube or check their emails.

You don't have to worry about them roaming around your phone – they can't escape the guest profile and access the main account without knowing your passcode.