Multi-user mode seemingly making its way to Android smartphones with Android L

Android tablets have been capable of handling multiple users since Android 4.2, and being able to do this on our Android smartphones has been a long-time request from the community. Today, it looks as if Google has confirmed — by way of the Android issue tracker — that this is a feature coming to the “next public build” of Android (via Android Police).

“My idea is to enable the multi-user feature on phone type devices, with adding an extra restricted account type for kids,” the Android user humbly requested earlier today. And within 30 minutes, a “Project Member” replied saying that the feature has already been added. “The development team has implemented this feature and it will be available as a part of the next public build.”

Here’s the conversation as screenshotted just moments ago:

That’s a pretty clear response. What exactly the developer means by “next public build” is still yet to be known, but I think we can assume he or she means Android L — a feature such as this wouldn’t likely be seeing primetime before the next major release. For those of you who have long been waiting to be able to have multiple user accounts on your Android phones, it appears the wait is almost over.