In Android 14 Developer Preview 1, it looks like Google is going to be giving users the ability to clone apps. It’s buried a bit deep in the code for this first preview, so it’s likely not ready just yet and may not make it to the final release. But this would be a more official way to clone an app, and have two instances of it running on your phone or tablet.
Now you might be wondering, why you’d want multiple instances of the same app on the same device. Well, some apps only let you log in to one account at a time. So if you have the app cloned, you could login in two accounts. Definitely not a feature that everyone would be using, but it’s good to see it available in Android 14.
Google and OEMs are able to decide which apps cannot be cloned
As you might expect, both Google and manufacturers with Android 14-powered devices, will be able to choose which apps are not allowed to be cloned. Surprisingly, a lot of Google’s first-party apps are not allowed to be cloned. Though, some aren’t a surprise, since you probably don’t need to clone the camera app. But other apps like YouTube Music, YouTube, SIM ToolkIt and Gmail are also not able to be cloned.
To clone an app, just head into Settings and tap on Apps. Towards the bottom, you’ll see a new option for “Cloned Apps”. This will show you how many are cloned and how many are available to clone. So unfortunately, you cannot clone every app on your phone.
This definitely looks like it is early days for this feature, and it could get pulled before Android 14 launches later in the Summer. We’ve seen this happen with a handful of features in the past.