If You Want A Second Google Account, Here's How You Can Have It

With a Google account, you can access an app suite, a host of productivity tools, movies, music, cloud storage, maps, emails, etc. Even better, you don’t have to stick to one account only. No matter the purpose, you can always have a second Google account of your own.

How to set up another account on Google

You will need to provide information, phone number for the second account. You will see suggestions for the account name depending on what name you give, but you can instead type in a new name as you want.

Additionally, you’ll have to give your birthday, gender, and of course, a password. You can and should choose to set a backup email too, which would help in case you can’t log in to the second account.

Next, you’ll see the Gmail screen, from which you can add a photo to your profile for the Google account as well as set up two-factor authentication.

How to add the second account to your phone

It’s almost always the case that Android users will have two Google accounts. Different phones and Android versions may lead to slightly different processes; on the stock OS, however, you need to visit Settings, tap on Accounts > Add account > Google. You will then have to sign in using the second account’s username and password.

The impact of this addition varies among apps. For instance, in Gmail, you can tap on your profile picture then select the new account you’ve just added from the list. Meanwhile, for YouTube, you can also tap on your profile photo, tap on the name of the current account and choose the second account.

The steps for Google Drive are similar to youtube and Gmail, you also need to tap on your avatar then choose the second account.

Normally, it should be easy to find the account switcher in any Google app, which lies at the top of Google Photo’s app menu, the top right side behind the avatar in Google Maps, and in the app menu in Google Play Movies & TV.

Gmail is a little different from the other Google apps as it allows merging accounts, which means you are able to view all of your emails on one screen. To do this, launch the app menu then tap on All inboxes. The app already offers options for merging emails from multiple Gmail accounts.

If you’re using an iPhone and want to set up another Google account, the easiest way is installing the Google app version for iOS. Now, tap on your avatar, tap on Add another account, and follow the instructions for logging in. You will also need to choose a default account. You can also merge emails in the Gmail app for iOS.

How to add another Google account on the web

In this case, you are recommended to add the second account in Gmail first, then this account will also be available in the other web apps you use on Google. To do this, in the web version of Gmail, click on your avatar, then click on Add another account and sign in to the second account you want to add.

However, on the web, you can’t merge emails from different accounts, but you can open separate tabs at the same time.

Nevertheless, there are a few options for putting all the emails in one inbox. One way is to forward those from the second account to the main one. From the screen of the second Gmail account, click on the cog icon, click on Settings > Forwarding and POP/IMAP > Add a forwarding address, which will send all the emails from the second account straight to the first one.

The process explained above is simple but it doesn’t allow you to reply to emails in the second account from the first account’s inbox. To be able to do this, you ill have to enable POP access to the second account. You can either choose to keep the copies of the emails in the second account’s inbox.

Now go back to the first account’s inbox, you need to click on the cog icon, click on Settings > Accounts and Import, you now have to add the second account in Check mail from other accounts and Send mails sections.

After finishing adding the second account in Gmail, you can see it on the menu by clicking on your avatar in all your other Google web apps. It’s impossible to view info of both accounts on one screen, but you can still run apps under different accounts at the same time by opening multiple tabs.

Besides, Google Chrome lets you configure multiple profiles, which is similar to having several user accounts on macOS and Windows, keeping passwords, bookmarks, browsing history as well as other browser data separate between accounts.

From the toolbar in Chrome, click on your avatar, select Manage people, choose Add person. Now, you have to pick a name for your second profile, a photo, and sign in with its credentials. Just click on the avatar on Chrome’s toolbar to switch between accounts.

If you’re wondering about the end-user experience, having a second profile is not really different from launching the second account in another tab. However, Chrome will surely run separately regarding the dock and taskbar, and you can separate your history, passwords, bookmarks, and more if you want to.