[dragonfire]

I have been using two phones for as far as I can remember. There is no way you get to use iOS and Android unless you have two phones.

Earlier, an Android used to be my primary device and and iPhone only for calls and bank transactions. iPhone used to be an inferior model, often two or three gen old. Now the tables have turned and an iPhone 13 is my primary device and a Moto Edge 20 being the secondary device.

So now I carry only the iPhone around and the Moto lies at my desk. Also I am slowly transitioning from the Moto to a Realme tab 8, but the progress is slow as the tab is a tad slow for my liking.

It is a pain to carry two devices in the pocket, especially if they are heavy. But you love the redundancy. If one runs out of battery or reception, you have the other one handy. Also you can clearly separate the personal and work phone.

Originally Posted by vb-san

The focus modes on iPhone is a boon to segregate personal and work – The work mode gets activated 9:00am to 5:30pm on weekdays, and screen layout is tailored accordingly. For e.g., in the work mode, Outlook and Teams come on home page, along with the calendar widget, and after office hours it gets relegated into 3rd or 4th page, with notifications muted. This means work information is not always ‘on-your-face’ and have the flexibility to choose when you want to look at it (screenshot below). And with this I don’t get overwhelmed with work stuff during personal time.

I'd like to know how to do this. Any guide or tutorial that can help me?

[TheHelix0202]

Currently using an S22 Ultra as my main smartphone (came from an iPhone 14) and a Motorola One Fusion Plus as a beater for GPS primarily. Also for storing photos and other miscellaneous items. Both run on postpaid SIMs, though I'm planning to get a prepaid plan for the main, as it is much more cost effective.

I find having two phones to be perfectly balanced in terms of use scenario and also multitasking quickly and efficiently, rather than downing the battery of any one said device at any point of time. Also gives me more control over multimedia usage and restricts wasting time on social media platforms. I use cloud based systems for storage anyway, even though both my devices have greater than 128 Gigs of ROM. The combined storage means I never have the need to fret over lack of internal storage.

Buy a cheap beater to get started and then see where it leads you. All the best.

[srvm]

I work in strategic sector. So smartphones & mobiles with camera aren't allowed in workplace. So mine is a humble Nokia 215 4G handset.

I keep a smartphone at home without sim to be used in home wifi only. Just to check whatsapp and Gmail between 8pm to 7am and on weekends.
Getting another sim or switching sim between the 2 phones during weekends is too much of a hassle for me

This may not be useful info for many but I thought it can provide perspective to at least a few.

[sagarpadaki]

I am a single phone user. I just cannot imagine lugging around 2 phones in my pocket.

[TheHelix0202]

Originally Posted by dragonfire

Any guide or tutorial that can help me?

Simply enable Do Not Disturb and let the phone suggest / take you through the steps by itself, or search Focus Mode in the settings. Or watch a YouTube tutorial. Super simple.

[SoumenD]

Strictly on 1 phone now. I don't see a point of checking mails or answering teams outside working hours, hence haven't opted for office phone. I did have Outlook, Teams etc on personal phone till 2021. However starting 2022(new year resolution) I decided to remove all those apps as it used to make me anxious pointlessly. If there's anything urgent which needs my attention outside working hours, people will call me on my personal phone, else it can always wait till next day. Ofcourse nature of my job(technical architect) doesn't need my availability 24/7.

Been 1 year of no office apps or separate phone and there has been absolutely no complaints or issues from office POV. Am not going back to 2nd phone in near future. But I do make sure the phone has dual sim so that my India number can be kept active while travelling abroad.

[HighRevving]

I use 2 phones on a regular basis.

Primary phone for office, banking, delivery apps or anything that could attract spam. These days you have to give your phone number to everyone, from tech park to a valet driver. Companies don't let you sign in as a visitor if you don't provide an OTP. This means a lot of people have the opportunity to spam over weekends and vacations. There are plethora of text messages everyday and usually come from BT-BUSINESS or VT-BUSINESS so you cannot even report them to mobile operator for DND violation.

Second phone is purely personal, not many people have the number either. Some people at work ask me for my second number and I usually tell them it has my mum's SIM card, as she is not using her phone for now. The second phone never goes on silent, so my family can reach me any time. When I am driving to work and on usual weekdays I connect my primary phone to CarPlay but when I am driving away on vacation, I connect my second phone.

When I am on holidays, I try to leave my primary phone in the room or in the car, so that is a iPhone 11 and my personal phone is a 14 Pro for taking pictures etc. Yes it is painful to carry two phones but the convenience it provides is immense. Also, having separate WhatsApp numbers and phones means people from work cannot call you and say "So, I saw you were online on WhatsApp" .

[boniver]

I use one iPhone for everything, and have an Android phone in the car for downloading dashcam footage if I ever need (the dashcam app is buggy on iOS).

[Apex1815]

IMHO, I can speak over only one phone at a time, then why to carry Two.

I prefer keeping only single phone with Dual SIM (One Sim personal and other given by my company). One Dual Sim Smart phone suffices my all requirements. Personally I would never be comfortable keeping Two Phones.
(One of my old boss used to carry Three smartphones, God only knows why ?).

The quick advantages of using a single phone are :
1) Easy to carry.
2) Less chances of forgetting the phone every now and then.
3) One stop shop for all your requirements (Calling, Bigbasket, Ola Cab, FLipkart, Trading etc)

The disadvantages of using multiple phones are:
1) Difficult to carry. The phones now a days are so big and hefty that carrying one phone itself in pocket is a big task. Keeping two phones in pockets would not be feasible.
2) More chances of forgetting the phone (here & there) if you have multiple phones.
3) Now you need to manage charging of Two Phones
4) Carrying separate chargers while travelling especially if you have one I-Phone and other Android.

[KrisTvpm]

Use 2 dual-SIM android phones.

• Primary/personal phone: Samsung Galaxy Note 9, 4years old
  * SIM 1 - holding for last 18+ years, used for all financial transactions
  * SIM 2 - used for all incoming/outgoing call purposes, shared with all family/friends, whatsapp/other SM etc.

• Secondary/office phone: Samsung Galaxy M21, 2years old
  * SIM 1 - official SIM, used exclusively only for office purposes
  * SiM 2 - used only to share for any unwanted/unimportant purposes, don't take most calls, just ignore

Pet peeve: Never share the SIM-1 of personal phone to anyone, yet max no. of marketing/tele-callers somehow get this number, in a day have to ignore atleast 5calls on this one Obviously they must be getting my number from the bank(s) I have transactions with.

[Ton Ami]

Originally Posted by fhdowntheline

Do you guys keep multiple phones with you? What is the use case ? My objective was to separate work devices from personal but somehow have stuck to keeping one phone with dual sim to get signal flexibility. But on the flip side is the risk of device loss. Not sure of the convenience of carrying two phones everyday. But would like to hear various experiences.

I usually keep a smart phone and a non smart phone (old Nokia) as a backup. From data security point of view it works as I browse websites on one phone but receive OTPs on the other phone.

[vredesbyrd]

Been using two phones since 2019 as I wanted to know specifically if the office was calling and not let them see my cool gaming/anime/emo statuses.
Later I started putting statuses on both and annoyed both groups of people.

Seen a lot of shifts: P = Private, W = Work

2019:
P = Samsung Note 9
W = LG V30

2021:
P = iPhone 12 Mini
W = LG V30

2021-2:
P = iPhone 12 Mini
W = OnePlus 9R or 10R (because OnePlus?)

2022:
P = iPhone 14 Pro
W = 10R

Basically iPhone because I want great performance, reliability, fewer ads/spyware, first class camera and a top notch UI.
Android because it's a workhorse and if a task fails (it will), there's an alternate route to do things. Also, ad free instagram (impact guru and random pointless model and entrepreneur accounts can sod off)

[Sounak04]

I have been using 2 phones from more than 3 months now.

First phone is my Primary phone. It is an Iphone and has all my personal stuffs like Banking apps, Personal Whatsapp, Photos, etc. This number is provided to everyone. Iphone is also linked to my Apple Watch and Ipad, thus providing a seamless ecosystem.

Second phone is my Work phone issued by our Office. It is a Pixel 6a with Customized office software and all. All the calls in that phone is auto-recorded and stored on Company's Cloud. Other than that, Company's mails, whatsapp, apps, documents, etc are stored in this phone so that it can be easily accessed and transferred to when required.

I personally think having a separate phone for office is actually convenient. I simply put my office phone on Airplane mode after 6 or 7 pm and check it only occasionally. Our office also notes down our Personal number in case of any Major escalations or issues. We can be only contacted on our Personal Number if something unavoidable has happened.

[GTO]

Used to keep 2 phones many years back, when phones were still small & I needed a separate one for work. Luckily, had gotten the same phone number, with just one change = personal started with 98, while work phone started with 93.

Today's smartphones are too big to lug around 2 of them. Plus, if you need a second number for whatsoever purpose, get a dual-sim model.

I do keep a cheap backup phone in the cupboard which is on a cheap prepaid plan. I use this cheap backup phone only in 2 situations:

1. My primary phone had its screen broken and was in the workshop for 2 days. Used it as a temporary daily.

2. I fire up the backup phone & unused SIM when a website insists on phone verification & I know I'll get inundated with hundreds of calls in the coming days (e.g. buying insurance online or selling your used car to the startups).

[The Rationalist]

I have been using one Android and one iOS phone from past 4 years. I have one exclusively for work and other one for personal use. I’m used to carrying them and now it’s not much bothering. I use phones for 4-5 years, not much worried about having the latest gadgets, so works out financially also. I have never bought phones which cost more than a weeks salary, hope to keep it the same for the foreseeable future.