Work profiles in Android isolate all applications and synced account information from the personal profile so users don't accidentally mix information from their work and personal lives. While work profiles can help employees manage their work-life balance and avoid accidentally leaking information, there are a few inconveniences that they introduce. For example, many work-managed calendar applications don't support cross-profile calendar sync, meaning users have to check their calendar app in both their personal and work profiles to make sure they don't miss an important meeting or event. Even Google Calendar doesn't support cross-profile calendar visibility yet.

In Android 10, however, Google added support for showing work calendar details in the personal calendar and vice versa. With cross-profile calendar visibility, you can see work events in your personal calendar, and if you attempt to edit an event created in your work calendar, you are directed to edit the event in the calendar app from your work profile. This maintains proper separation between personal and work profiles while also making things more convenient for workers. However, in order to support cross-profile calendar visibility, calendar applications have to be updated to support the new APIs. There's evidence in the latest version of the Google Calendar app for Android that Google is preparing to enable cross-profile calendar support.

An APK teardown can often predict features that may arrive in a future update of an application, but it is possible that any of the features we mention here may not make it in a future release. This is because these features are currently unimplemented in the live build and may be pulled at any time by the developers in a future build.

In the latest version of Google Calendar, version 2020.14-1, we spotted new strings that hint at cross-profile calendar connections. One set of strings will appear as part of a promo message informing the user that they can "see all [their] events here, including [their] personal calendars." Another set of strings describes the preference in Settings that the user must enable to show calendar events from their personal Calendar app in their work Calendar app. Enabling this preference will "[let] you see your work events alongside your personal events." Once enabled, "you can then quickly jump to your personal Calendar app to change events." To maintain privacy, "your calendars are still stored separately."

        <string name="cross_profile_drawer_promo_text">To see all your events here, include your personal calendars</string>
<string name="cross_profile_drawer_promo_title">Add your personal calendars</string>
<string name="cross_profile_learn_more">Learn more</string>
<string name="cross_profile_promo_dismiss">Dismiss</string>
<string name="crossprofile_connection_off">Not connected</string>
<string name="crossprofile_connection_on">Connected</string>
<string name="crossprofile_preference_activate_info">"Turning this on lets your work Calendar app show the calendar events from your personal Calendar app. This lets you see your work events alongside your personal events. You can then quickly jump to your personal Calendar app to change them. To Protect your privacy, your calendars are still stored separately."</string>
<string name="crossprofile_preference_activate_link">Turn on in Settings</string>
<string name="crossprofile_preference_deactivate_info">To keep your calendars separate across apps, update access in Settings. Once turned off, your personal Calendar events will stop showing in your work Calendar app.</string>
<string name="crossprofile_preference_deactivate_link">Turn off in Settings</string>
<string name="menu_crossprofile_preferences">Personal calendars</string>
<string name="work_profile_header_title">Work profile</string>

I set up a local work profile using the Island app, but I was unable to get cross-profile calendar visibility working. It's likely this feature will roll out in a future update of the Google Calendar app or will be enabled via a server-side configuration change. Once the feature rolls out, we'll let you all know.

Work Profile on a Google Pixel 4 running Android 10
Google Calendar Developer: Google LLC
Price: Free
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