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My info on spouse's phone...???

JustMe84

JustMe84

Lurker
My spouse recently bought a new phone. Upon setting it up, all of my texts and apps "suddenly appeared" on his new phone. He said it is because he and I share a Gmail account and everything is auto backed up. Is this common that a spouse's info shows up on the other spouse's phone like this?
Thanks.
 
JustMe84 said:
My spouse recently bought a new phone. Upon setting it up, all of my texts and apps "suddenly appeared" on his new phone. He said it is because he and I share a Gmail account and everything is auto backed up. Is this common that a spouse's info shows up on the other spouse's phone like this?
Thanks.
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I think he meant you share a google account, which yes will share information between devices connected to the same account.

What you'll want to do is create your own (or he create his own) google account. It's very easy, and you can have several different google accounts on any device and switch between them any time you want.

I didn't realize text messages transferred to new devices tho.
 
Texts may depend on the devices. I remember a few years ago Google offered SMS backups to Pixel owners (I don't know whether you had to use Google's Messages app, which was of course the default app), but on most devices this isn't the norm.

But yes, if you don't want data sharing between the 2 devices you should use different Google accounts. Is it certainly not common that a spouse's data show up on the other spouse's phone, but that's because most couples will use separate accounts. What you've done is more like if one person has 2 android devices (e.g. a phone and a tablet), in which case it's sensible that they would want a lot of their data to appear on both.
 
The Darling Bride has her Google account, and I have mine. We have separate calendars for our own personal reminders and stuff. However, we have a shared calendar on which our joint events and reminders go.

That way, I see my stuff and our stuff without seeing all her stuff, and vice versa. It works out well for us.

:)
 
It is so true you can have sepearte gmail accounts, two of them are used for social media, and my primary one is for my business account - ergo were businesses can get a hold of me. :)
 
Thanks, everyone, for your replies. I totally get that by sharing a gmail acct we will see the same emails, google photos, google calendar... anything google. What I didn't realize was that other apps I had on my phone (like a fitness tracker or sticky notes apps) would also appear on his phone. I also didn't expect my texts to show up on his phone, since they were texts sent to my phone #, not his. Is it normal for EVERYTHING on my phone to transfer to his? We've upgraded phones before and never gotten each other's other personal info/apps/texts beyond Google apps. Has anyone else ever heard of this happening? Thanks!
 
Yes one account for google/gmail will transfer everything including apps and texts to both phones. The gmail address is attached to both nunbers.

Open a separate account asap if you want your stuff separated. I went through this with my wife's and my first android phone.
 
JustMe84 said:
I also didn't expect my texts to show up on his phone, since they were texts sent to my phone #, not his. Is it normal for EVERYTHING on my phone to transfer to his?
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As you say, texts are sent to a phone number so you should not receive his messages. But if you are using a setup where they are backed up to Google from his phone then those that were backed-up could be restored to yours. This will depend on what phones or apps you use: I expect that it relies on Google's Messages app, for example (which I don't use, but is the default on many phones).
 
"... one account for google/gmail will transfer everything including apps and texts to both phones. The gmail address is attached to both nunbers."
It's interesting you had this same experience. We've shared a gmail account for years and have upgraded phones several times but never had one another's individual apps transfer over when we upgrade. Only our Google-specific apps. I was not using Messages for my texts (I was using a totally separate texting app). It just seems so weird that ALL my stuff transferred.
 
JustMe84 said:
"... one account for google/gmail will transfer everything including apps and texts to both phones. The gmail address is attached to both nunbers."
It's interesting you had this same experience. We've shared a gmail account for years and have upgraded phones several times but never had one another's individual apps transfer over when we upgrade. Only our Google-specific apps. I was not using Messages for my texts (I was using a totally separate texting app). It just seems so weird that ALL my stuff transferred.
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These were on much older phones like around Android 2.3/Gingerbread. I set up my gmail when we both got HTC EVO 4G's. During set up, that apps that I use were on her phone because I used my gmail to set up her phone initially. Then, I added her gmail later. So, the second EVO had my apps on it. Then a year later, I got her an EVO 3D (which we later returned because it was just too much phone for her at the time). When I set up I used her email but then my contacts got intermingled with hers. I had to manually (by pc) remove all these apps that got mixed in with her contacts. I guess when the phone synced it synced back and forth with my contacts and hers mixed.

HTC had a sync app that would let me sync back and forth with my pc. Thinking about it now I think that may have been the reason why our contacts got mixed. Plus I was rooting and flashing ROMs and who knows what I was doing go through all the set ups and new ROMs.

I can't remember everything and maybe I shouldn't say ALL of my apps transferred but I remember setting up her Samsung S3 with HER email and some of MY non google apps were on it. This was before all the family library system, too. I thought it was strange but I just deleted them after they were installed. She doesn't use as many apps as I do.She probably uses maybe 5 apps in addition to the core apps.
 
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