• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

two mobile phones theory

fields12

Newbie
Feb 20, 2016
32
15
1. in the foreign film "Raid 2," the undercover police officer, frequently removes the sim card from his one smartphone and inserts a second sim card in order to have:

a. one isolated network for police communications; and

b. one isolated network for criminal communications.

2. all across america, many people own/possess and carry two smartphones:


a. the one issued by their employer for work; and

b. the second purchased by the user for personal communications.

3. the reasons for "2," vary, but primarily relate to the employee desire to keep his/her personal life segregated from employer supervision. ... the inconvenience of such activity becomes obvious.

4. hence, the questions arise, ....; does android software and/or related mobile phone hardware admit of:

a. simultaneous installation of and switching between two sim cards (on two different networks and/or telephone numbers) in one smartphone?; and

b. segregation and isolation otherwise, of personal and work data/communications in a single smartphone.

5. by way of example, i installed three email accounts on my android phone:

a. one for work on exchange software;

b. one for personal on android software; and

c. one for the device itself, gmail, because android likes to have a gmail account to deal with.

this arrangement however, nontheless integrates all contacts via the phone contact file; and hence, becomes unacceptable, and mandates removal of office or business email account.

hence, a separate question; does android permit meaningful segregation of email accounts?
 
Last edited:
does android software and/or related mobile phone hardware admit of:

a. simultaneous installation of and switching between two sim cards (on two different networks and/or telephone numbers) in one smartphone?


Yes, such devices are termed "dual-SIM" phones.


segregation and isolation otherwise, of personal and work data/communications in a single smartphone.

Recent Android versions have the facility to define multiple user accounts on a single device, so again yes.


does android permit meaningful segregation of email accounts?

Your email accounts are segregated; it's your contacts that are displaying unified. The Contacts app should allow you to display only "Exchange Contacts" (for example).
 
Upvote 0
thanks for your helpful and informative comments.

please forgive my ignorance if i err in what follows.

1. i have a device with android operating system 5.1.1 ("o/s").

2. the o/s permits me to create different "user accounts," but only by creating different email addresses/accounts.

3. the contacts for each user account automatically deposit into the o/s satellite "phone contacts" file. i can segregate the contacts for each user account, by sub-files and separate "groups" in the phone contacts file. ... the parent phone contacts file nevertheless always contains and lists together in alphabetical sequence all of the contacts for all of the user accounts.

* * * *

4. the dual sim card phone is most interesting.

5. if i understand correctly however, both sim cards will deposit and share data on the one, single, mobile phone ("m.p.") hard drive, i.e., the internal memory? ... so, for example, installation of my office email account on my m.p. involves an exchange account ... and that exchange account requires much access to and authorization over the m.p. internal memory.

* * * *

my sense of things at this moment ....; there's rhyme and reason for so many persons in the u.s.a., work force, both labor and management (perhaps management to a lesser degree) .... who choose the inconvenience of carrying two physical mobile phones.
 
Upvote 0
Most (if not all) modern Android smart phones allow you to set up multiple email accounts and have multiple sets of segregated contacts. You typically have the choice of whether or not to (1) sync contacts with their respective cloud services and (2) DISPLAY some or all of those accounts on your phone such that the APPEAR to be merged (when in fact those contacts reside in different places).

For example, you could have (1) personal contacts on a Gmail account, (2) business contacts on a Hotmail account, and (3) drug-dealer contacts in "phone-only" (no-cloud sync) storage. You could choose whether or not to sync your Gmail and Hotmail contacts to your phone. And you could choose whether or not to display any of those accounts on your phone. While at work, you could choose to display only your business contacts. After work you could choose to display only your Gmail & drug-dealer contacts. No contact from one account would automatically move or duplicate itself to another account.

Some people (especially federal employees) carry 2 phones because they attach to different service providers and/or secure servers. For example, the federal government requires that employees use phones (typically Blackberries) that are pretty locked-down and attach only to secure (I think Blackberry-based) servers that are under government control. Many federal employees carry a second smartphone for personal use so that they can install their favorite apps and use their own cell plans & services. (FYI: Hillary Clinton is under FBI investigation, in part because she allegedly didn't do what practically all other white collar federal employees do by carrying 2 phones so that her official correspondences would be kept on secure government servers and stored accordance with the Federal Records Act, with her personal correspondences being kept elsewhere).
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: codesplice
Upvote 0
thanks for your informative comments.

1. i understand the wit and wisdom of having two mobile phones ("m.p."), one for work and one for personal. It makes perfect sense; and apparently much of the public sector mandates it; and the private sector frequently deploys it voluntarily. ... the price of this benefit arrives in substantial inconvenience however.

2. i also understand the rhyme and reason of having one m.p. installed with work and personal email accounts segregated as separate "users." in this situation, email for the one account arrives, resides and dispatches in and from one set of folders; and email in the other account does the same in a separate set of folders.

3. what i am having trouble understanding in respect of "2" however, ... at some point down the rabbit hole of successive layers of software ending in the m.p., operating system .... a point of convergence arrives whereby data from one user account becomes common or shared with data from another user account. ... and that point of convergence on my android 5.1.1. device appears to be the phone contacts folder. so, if I have "a," "b," and "c," personal contacts on my personal user account installed on the android email platform; and "x," "y" and "z" work contacts on my work user account installed on outlook email platform (or the android platform) .... both sets of contacts appear on the master phone contacts list ... and irrespective of whether those contacts have solely email addresses; or both email addresses and phone numbers.
 
Upvote 0
... a point of convergence arrives whereby data from one user account becomes common or shared with data from another user account. ... and that point of convergence on my android 5.1.1. device appears to be the phone contacts folder.
Perhaps I misunderstand your concern but...

In my experience, the data from one contact storage system (like Gmail or Hotmail or Outlook/Microsoft Exchange or "phone-only" contacts) does not automatically or accidentally merge with others, though you can choose to merge them. However, depending on the "Display" settings that you choose from within your "Contacts" app, your contacts from different account may appear to be merged when you view it on your phone. For example, in the settings for my Samsung Galaxy S5's Android 5.0 Contacts app (which I think is a stock Android app), I can go into Settings/Contacts to Display and then choose which contacts to display on my phone. I think the default is probably "All contacts" which would make all contacts from multiple accounts be displayed and appear merged. The "Device" contacts are the ones that are stored only on your phone (and not synced to any cloud).
 
Upvote 0
thanks for your helpful comments.

when i proceed to:

1. home screen;

2. contacts;

3. contacts settings;

4. contacts to display;

i see the default position which was set on my phone to "all contacts."

i changed it to "phone;" and now only phone contacts appear.

i also see i can change "contacts to display" to the gmail account, but not to my other email account, perhaps because i have no phone contacts yet on the other email account.
 
Upvote 0
FYI: I keep my contacts in a Hotmail account so that they sync with Outlook on my PC (through the Hotmail cloud). I also have a gmail account on that phone but I don't sync or display gmail contacts. I only keep one "phone" (unsynced, internal storage only) contact on my phone-- which is a "* Call this number if you find this phone".
 
Upvote 0

BEST TECH IN 2023

We've been tracking upcoming products and ranking the best tech since 2007. Thanks for trusting our opinion: we get rewarded through affiliate links that earn us a commission and we invite you to learn more about us.

Smartphones