GrapheneOS
Add toggle to show/hide 'End session' button on lock screen
Enhancement suggestion/request:
Add a toggle 'End session from lock screen' (under Settings > System > Multiple users) to prevent accidentally ending sessions while the phone is in your pocket and 'Tap to check phone' (under Settings > Display > Lock screen) is enabled. Even when the button is hidden, the current session can still be ended normally via the power menu.
I am also facing exactly the same scenario painted above wherein you installed all communication apps (SIgnal, WhatsApp, etc.,) in that profile and it was accidentaly ended then you will be disconnected from any communications. That too, you are not aware of it. I am supporting Ducci255's feature request and the recommendation given in the request itself.
The button is unnecessary because the power menu accomplishes the same thing. Maybe it could at least be fixed to not show when lock screen text has been set.
Insane that this simple feature still hasn’t been added in 3 years it’s not that complicated and it’s extremely annoying to have this useless button no one asked for or needed. This shouldn’t be labeled as a low priority problem when it’s a massive security vulnerability. I love going through the effort to set up multiple user profiles to separate my stuff between multiple users but hey if someone gets ahold of my phone they can just press end session and instantly jump to the root profile with little effort. What a great idea to have this stupid button.
I don't think it's a security vulnerability, but it's a major inconvenience for users who decide to leave main profile blank and use secondary profile as their main profile, which can lead to accidentally terminating session and not receiving crucial calls or alarms.
In my case I end session accidentally while running with the phone in my hand for example, can also happen while in a pocket. Any kid being around the locked phone will also terminate the session in a moment.
As this issue makes a great GOS profiles related features unusable in some cases and the solution should not be very complicated to implement, I would also opt for increasing the priority of adding a toggle to disable the always visible lock screen button.
@Seedling1154
I love going through the effort to set up multiple user profiles to separate my stuff between multiple users but hey if someone gets ahold of my phone they can just press end session and instantly jump to the root profile with little effort. What a great idea to have this stupid button.
This claim doesn't make any sense since switching between users while locked is always possible. It's part of the original use case of supporting multiple actual users of the device. That's not a security vulnerability and there are unlock methods for a reason. There's also no "root" profile but rather an Owner user.
I set up my children's phones with an Owner profile (me) and their user profiles. They have no access to the Owner profile. The prominet position of the end session button resulted in more than one missed call or message simply because their respective session had been ended accidently while the phone was in the pocket (or some jerk friend pressed the button for ... fun?).
I know there are no privacy or security benefits from hiding the button but there are UX benefits gained by adding the option. I understand this is low prio and don't argue against it. But pretty please consider this as this silly button makes it more difficult to sell them kids a privacy focused phone.
(For the same reason I believe a password protected On/Off button might be useful in some situations, even though it's silly security theater in reality)
I use a secondary profile as a dummy profile, and want to hide the existance of a main owner profile to prevent low competent adversaries.
As such, I would like the option to completely toggle off "end session" from either power button or lock screen.
The toggle can be set from "manage users" in owner profile.
This would mean rebooting to enter the owner profile, but that should be an option which the owner decides on.
@lawmanuk
I use a secondary profile as a dummy profile, and want to hide the existance of a main owner profile to prevent low competent adversaries.
Seeing that multiple users exist doesn't take much competence and can be part of standard instructions. It WILL be noticed part of standard device extraction procedures which use developer options and ADB.
This would mean rebooting to enter the owner profile, but that should be an option which the owner decides on.
No, it wouldn't mean that at all. End session is an extra thing and not part of basic user switching.
+1.
Having that button is most prominent place resulted in my accidentally logging myself out of my "daily" profile, and needed to log back into owner, and switch back to daily. And also, it didn't even ask for my confirmation to end the session, so anybody with physical access to my phone can kill the session, and I wouldn't easily notice that it's done, until I try to open my phone.
+1
The amount of times I accidentally hit this button on my main (non-owner) profile and had all of my running apps killed is insane, the button adds nothing but frustration. And there is absolutely no point to it, since holding the power button (hard to do on accident) also presents you with this same option.
How this is considered low-priority is beyond me
+1 the current behaviour is driving me crazy ...
The fact this issue is still exists drives me crazy I even stopped using grapheneOS because of it loved having my audiobooks interrupted by it switching users in my pocket several times a day.
I do understand what you mean though I and others have been a bit rude with our replies and I apologize for my rudeness. But you got to understand this is an issue of frustration for many. The part about this issue that gets so many frustrated is the fact that we aren’t asking for a new feature or anything which would explain why it’s taken 3 years to fix this it’s that it’s an function many don’t even want. I don’t understand why the “End Session” button isn’t in the user settings area why is the Lock Screen the place it was designed to go. I like this idea of multiple users it can be convenient in times but that single button makes it impossible to use. As another said I have lost tons of important calls and text just because of this feature. And it’s just frustrating that I can do nothing to fix it because it’s a feature I cannot decide if I want to use it or not.
I want to like graheneOS but this single feature makes me not like it as much as I’d like to. I love the idea of multiple users I can separate work and social media in their own users and keep things more organized and separated so that I can be disconnected when I want to be. The idea of only using the owner session is kind of dumb I mean you give people the feature of using multiple users so they are gonna use it but that single button makes it nearly useless.
We aren’t asking for much just a toggle button to disable End Session button on Lock Screen. If you coded it in you can code a way to turn it off.
The fact this issue is still exists drives me crazy I even stopped using grapheneOS because of it loved having my audiobooks interrupted by it switching users in my pocket several times a day.
So you don't use GrapheneOS anyway?
I do understand what you mean though I and others have been a bit rude with our replies and I apologize for my rudeness.
You're continuing that here. Use the thumbs up and/or other reactions to express support for issues instead of replying with +1 posts.
The part about this issue that gets so many frustrated is the fact that we aren’t asking for a new feature or anything which would explain why it’s taken 3 years to fix this it’s that it’s an function many don’t even want.
It's a request for a new feature changing the standard Android end session user interface.
I don’t understand why the “End Session” button isn’t in the user settings area why is the Lock Screen the place it was designed to go.
We didn't design it, Android did. We just enabled it without needing a device manager.
I like this idea of multiple users it can be convenient in times but that single button makes it impossible to use. As another said I have lost tons of important calls and text just because of this feature. And it’s just frustrating that I can do nothing to fix it because it’s a feature I cannot decide if I want to use it or not.
No one has contributed anything to the project related to this. No one has made a pull request implementing making it optional.
I want to like graheneOS but this single feature makes me not like it as much as I’d like to. I love the idea of multiple users I can separate work and social media in their own users and keep things more organized and separated so that I can be disconnected when I want to be. The idea of only using the owner session is kind of dumb I mean you give people the feature of using multiple users so they are gonna use it but that single button makes it nearly useless.
The button hardly makes it useless and there are other upstream Android UX annoyances with user profiles.
We aren’t asking for much just a toggle button to disable End Session button on Lock Screen. If you coded it in you can code a way to turn it off.
It's a standard Android feature and you are asking for an additional feature. If it's so easy why has none of you submitted a PR? This is an open source project, so why don't you implement it? You certainly could have learned how to implement it done it over the course of 3 years. It doesn't require knowing how to code to begin with.
So you don't use GrapheneOS anyway?
I don’t use it anymore I said that sadly my pixel 7 broke but I was getting annoyed with it and was in the process of switching back to my apple phone
You're continuing that here. Use the thumbs up and/or other reactions to express support for issues instead of replying with +1 posts.
Says you that’s replying to me instead of using thumbs
It's a request for a new feature changing the standard Android end session user interface.
Gotcha I didn’t know that
We didn't design it, Android did. We just enabled it without needing a device manager.
If you enabled it what’s stopping you from adding a toggle???
No one has contributed anything to the project related to this. No one has made a pull request implementing making it optional.
Damn you would think that with the amount of people commenting on the issue it would have been made. It’s not like everyone would know the proper way to submit the request and even then when you google the issue this thread is one of the first things that pops up can’t blame people for speaking by their minds on what they think is the only thread about this topic
The button hardly makes it useless and there are other upstream Android UX annoyances with user profiles.
It doesn’t make it useless but it nearly does why would I want to use a separate user when it randomly ends the session when it’s simply in my pocket
It's a standard Android feature and you are asking for an additional feature. If it's so easy why has none of you submitted a PR? This is an open source project, so why don't you implement it? You certainly could have learned how to implement it done it over the course of 3 years. It doesn't require knowing how to code to begin with.
I wasn’t the OG poster lol I posted my first comment a year ago the OG poster made this thread in 2022 lol I’m busy enough with work I’m at least trying to do my part and saying there is a want for a feature like this.
Who calls it an Apple phone?
Got me there lol not sure why I called it that but to be fair most people just call all smart phones iPhones
@thestinger Since it's a standard android feature, should the implementation be submitted upstream? Or would it be better to contribute to Graphene directly?
As much as we all want this toggle, it really does belong upstream. How it hasn't landed there yet is mindboggling.
Upstream use case for that is different than here. Upstream is for parents giving their phone to kids, and then needing ability to quickly get back to their (master) account.
In GOS, we want to treat master account as "sudo", and secondary account as the main one.
In GOS, we want to treat master account as "sudo", and secondary account as the main one.
Apps in the Owner user do not have more privileges than apps elsewhere so the comparison you're making is not correct.
In GOS, we want to treat master account as "sudo", and secondary account as the main one.
Apps in the Owner user do not have more privileges than apps elsewhere so the comparison you're making is not correct.
I think they meant that the Owner can among other things control the available apps in the other user profiles and as such mimic an Admin user. Please corret me when I'm wrong, though.
Concerning this issue: I would love to contribute code but I'm not familiar with Android development and haven't coded in years. If anyone can point me in the correct direction and all it takes is a little bit of xml/config adjustments or a few lines of code I'd like to get in the middle of it. But I'm starting with zero knowledge here so ...
I think they meant that the Owner can among other things control the available apps in the other user profiles and as such mimic an Admin user. Please corret me when I'm wrong, though.
Apps are sandboxed. Apps running in Owner do not have more access than in other users. Owner cannot access data of other users, etc. but can set rules about what they're allowed to do to the extent that it's supported.
@thestinger By "sudo" I meant ability of the owner to limit app install on secondary profiles.
I understand that some people this feature in more "horizontal" manner, but this is not the only use case. Regular user vs "sudo" is common practice on many systems, so people do this "vertical" approach with GOS as well.
@alexindigo
Regular user vs "sudo" is common practice on many systems, so people do this "vertical" approach with GOS as well.
It does not work that way and you should stop making the inaccurate comparison.
It does for me, and there are many tutorials for those who want to disable app install on secondary accounts.
I understand it's not use case for everyone, but I don't think there is need to limit how users would utilize the feature.
I think it is important to remember that there are several different use cases for secondary user accounts and not focus on some specific ones. For many it is one of the flag features of GOS. It may as well be useful in a totally unrelated to security sense, as a way of keeping things tidy or even as a digital wellbeing tool.
It is also worth noticing that with the latest Android updates the current behavior became even more problematic, as the button became more prominent and easier to accidentally hit. I wonder if it is complicated to add a toggle for visibility of the button, perhaps it would be easier to just remove it, as we have a way of ending session after pressing the power button anyways.