When multiple users on android, is the ANDROID_ID unique for each user?

Question

http://developer.android.com/reference/android/provider/Settings.Secure.html#ANDROID_ID

This link says that : When a device has multiple users (available on certain devices running Android 4.2 or higher), each user appears as a completely separate device, so the ANDROID_ID value is unique to each user.

http://developer.android.com/about/versions/android-4.2.html#MultipleUsers While this link says: Beware that if your app requests one of the hardware device identifiers (such as the WiFi MAC address, the SERIAL number, or the ANDROID_ID number), they will provide the same value for each user because these identifiers are tied to the hardware and not the user.

Both are from android developer and have got me confused? Is the ANDROID_ID actually unique or not for multiple users on a single device?

possible duplicate of Implications of Android multiple user support (new in 4.2) for server side data model (e.g. android_id) — Mark Whitaker
ANDROID_ID has historically been notoriously unreliable when looking at the spectrum of devices in actual use. Don't count on any conclusion you reach about it as there have been plenty of issues apart from the one you raise. — Chris Stratton

yyouf yyouf · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-14T17:47:00

There is an issue opened here.

It appears to be an error in the doc, so ANDROID_ID should be different for multiple users on a single device.

Best thing is to test yourself, if you have a 4.2 tablet, but some others have tested it here for example, and it appears to work well.

When multiple users on android, is the ANDROID_ID unique for each user?

1 Answers