As more of our lives shift online, it becomes increasingly important to establish boundaries between different aspects of our digital activities. Many people maintain separate work and personal email addresses for this reason. But you don’t have to stop there.
Modern Web browsers offer profiles, a powerful but often overlooked feature. Whether you’re juggling work and personal browsing or managing multiple projects, browser profiles can make your digital life more organized and efficient.
The overarching reason to use browser profiles is to make it easier to focus on one thing at a time. Imagine you’re working on a bathroom remodel at home while negotiating a new contract with an important client at work. You probably don’t want to be distracted by tabs showcasing countertop surfaces when you should be estimating client deliverable dates. That’s especially true if you use the same Web apps—Gmail, Google Docs, Slack, Trello—to manage both personal and professional projects.
By setting up separate browser profiles, you can keep your work and personal browsing completely separate. That includes different bookmarks, sets of tabs, and account logins for the same websites. When you open Google Docs in your personal profile, you will find sheets that track the timeline for your bathroom remodel in your personal account; switch to your work profile to view only documents in your work account.
Other common uses for browser profiles include separating clients—particularly when managing accounts for them—keeping research projects or hobbies distinct, and maintaining a clean browser environment for testing.
Each browser profile maintains its own distinct set of browsing data and settings. While specifics may vary slightly among browsers, options include:
When you switch between profiles, you get a completely fresh browser environment with its own set of everything listed above. You can log in to the same website using different accounts in various profiles, and your activity in one profile won’t impact or be visible in another.
Getting started with profiles is simple. Here’s how to create and switch between them in Safari (in macOS 14 Sonoma and later), Google Chrome, and Firefox. Before you get started, though, a few tips:
Safari profiles share more data than those in Google Chrome and Firefox, and unlike the other two, Safari profiles automatically sync between devices. All bookmarks and saved passwords are accessible to all profiles, although you can choose a separate primary bookmark folder for each profile. Note that Safari stores its current settings in a permanent Personal profile that becomes visible only after you create a new one. To create a new profile in Safari:
Every window in Safari is associated with a profile, so switching between them can be as simple as clicking another window or using the Window menu. At most, you have to open a new window for the desired profile:
Google Chrome has had browser profile support for many years. Like Safari, you start with a default profile. To create a new profile in Chrome:
Every window is associated with a profile, so switching is often just a matter of clicking the desired window or choosing it from the Window menu. To open a window for a different profile:
Once you have multiple Chrome profiles, the app will ask you which to open on each launch. From this screen, you can also remove a profile by clicking the vertical dot menu and choosing Delete. If you deselect “Show on startup,” Chrome will open the last used profile at startup. You can always access this screen by clicking the profile icon in the toolbar and choosing Manage Chrome Profiles.
Although Firefox was the first browser to support profiles, they remain poorly integrated into its interface and can be confusing because each opens in another instance of Firefox— a new Firefox icon appears in the Dock for each. To create a new profile in Firefox:
Opening a new profile instance can be tricky since it’s essentially like opening another app, but there’s only one Firefox icon in your Applications folder. While there are command-line tricks to make switching easier, this is the simplest approach:
To simplify this process, open the About Profiles page in each profile and drag its proxy icon to the Bookmarks toolbar. That way, you can click the bookmark in the toolbar for quick access to About Profiles.
Once multiple profile instances are open, you can switch between them by clicking their windows or Dock icons.
Browser profiles struggle with one scenario: opening links from other apps. Imagine you’re busy in your Work profile but take a quick break to check your personal email. You receive a link from your bathroom designer with possible lighting options, so you click it. Since your browser is using your Work profile, the link opens there, and you have to transfer it manually to your Personal profile or risk muddying your organization.
However, this is a minor obstacle, given how beneficial browser profiles can be for organizing your online activities, whether you’re juggling multiple projects or simply keeping your work and personal browsing distinct.
(Featured image generated by ChatGPT)
Social Media: Tired of juggling work and personal tabs in one browser? Learn how browser profiles can keep your online life organized and distraction-free, plus get step-by-step tips for setting them up in Safari, Chrome, and Firefox.