Dual-SIM connectivity has become a common feature in almost all Android phones. This allows you to have different personal and business social media and messaging accounts to keep your personal and work lives separate. However, many Android apps like WhatsApp don't support multiple accounts, which could force you to rely on workarounds like using a third-party cloning app from the Play Store. Samsung and other Android smartphone makers offer a built-in app cloning functionality in their skins to avoid this problem. Google is seemingly taking a cue from them and could provide native app cloning on Pixels with Android 14.

The first Android 14 developer preview for Pixels contains a Cloned Apps option under Settings > Apps. As the name indicates, the feature creates "a second instance of an app so that you can use two accounts at the same time." The list of apps that can be cloned is specified by the OEM, with app developers having no way to opt-in/out of this.

Source: XDA

When you first clone an app, a "clone user profile" is created and used by subsequent duplicated apps (via XDA). This cloned profile is separate from the primary app on your phone, meaning no data is shared between the two apps, and they will work independently of each other.

Google's cloned user profile implementation will be better than other existing solutions used by Android manufacturers and third-party apps. They rely on either a work profile or a dedicated one to clone apps, which can cause file access and sharing issues.

Launcher integration for cloned apps is currently missing in Android 14 DP1. This means there is no way to tell the original and the cloned app apart since they both will have the same icon. If anything, this indicates the feature is still under development, and Google should fix this in the upcoming developer or beta release of Android 14.

Do note that the cloned apps feature is not enabled by default in Android 14 DP1 and needs to be enabled through a developer flag. So, there's no confirmation if the feature will be a part of the final Android 14 release later in the year or not.

If you want to try Android 14 on your Pixel phone, follow our guide on how to install the Android 14 developer preview.