If you’re anything like us, then you have multiple accounts for multiple purposes. Maybe you have one for your work life and one for your personal life, and even another for another realm of your life. To account for this, Google has begun offering multiple sign-in capabilities, allowing users to sign in to multiple accounts from the same browser.
The feature appears to be rolling out to some users and not others (we have yet to see it), but Google assures users that it is “working hard to enable this feature for everyone”.
The multiple sign-in feature can be turned on at the account settings page, enabling multiple sign-in for Google App Engine, Code, Calendar, Gmail, Reader, Sites, Voice and, in the near future, Google Docs. Mobile versions and other Google products do not support multiple sign-in and will instead default to the first account signed in to from the browser. Signing out of Google will sign users out of all logged-in accounts.
Google warns that “Enabling multiple sign-in will disable Offline products like Offline Gmail and Offline Calendar, as well as any browser bookmarks you’ve set to link to your accounts.” It goes on to say that if you want to continue using these products, do not enable multiple sign-in.
The feature allows users to have multiple instances of Google products open in any number of tabs in the same browser, but showing content for different accounts. So, if you have Gmail for work and then a separate one for personal stuff, you can now open each in the same browser, instead of using different browsers. The feature will also let users switch easily between accounts on the same tab, by choosing the appropriate account in the drop-down list in the upper right corner of the screen.
