Carrying two phones solves the work–personal problem and creates three new ones. Most people would rather keep one iPhone and draw a line inside it. iOS gives you more to work with than it first appears, and the right mix depends on which part of the separation matters to you.
Decide what you are separating
- Attention. Work notifications during dinner, personal ones in a meeting.
- Accounts. Work email, calendar and tools signed in as work; personal ones as you.
- Stuff. Notes, screenshots, photos and files that belong to one side.
- Access. Someone picking up your phone should not land in the side you keep apart.
Different tools cover different rows.
Separating attention: Focus
Focus (Settings → Focus) is iOS’s built-in work–personal switch:
- Create a Work Focus and a Personal Focus, and choose which people and apps can notify you in each.
- Give each Focus its own Home Screen pages, so work apps disappear when you are off.
- Add Focus filters so Mail and Calendar show the right accounts, and Safari opens the right Tab Group.
- Schedule them by time or place, so the switch happens without you.
Focus changes what you see. It does not sign anything out or keep any data apart.
Separating accounts
- Apps with account switching — Mail, Gmail, Outlook, Slack and many others — can hold both your work and personal accounts. Pair them with Focus filters.
- Websites hold one sign-in per site in each browser session. For the same service signed in as both work and personal, use Safari profiles (a Work profile and a Personal one) or separate Spaces. How to use multiple accounts on one iPhone goes through the options.
- Company-managed work apps. If your employer manages work apps through device management, iOS already keeps that managed data separate from yours. Ask IT before adding workarounds.
Separating stuff
This is where the built-in tools stop. Photos, Files and Notes are one library each. There are partial fixes:
- Notes folders for each side, and a locked note for anything sensitive.
- Albums in Photos, and the Hidden album for photos you do not want in the main view.
- Separate cloud accounts in Files for work and personal documents.
They organise; they do not separate. Everything still sits in one place, and one search brings both sides up together.
Separating access
- Locked apps (iOS 18): touch and hold an app and choose Require Face ID.
- Safari profiles have no lock of their own; anyone with your unlocked phone can switch to the other one.
One Space per side
SideSpace brings the account, stuff and access rows together. Make a Work Space and a Personal Space:
- Each has its own web sessions, so your work and personal accounts of the same service are both signed in.
- Each has its own pinned web apps, and a browser with separate tabs and history.
- Each has its own notes, and its own photos and videos kept out of your Photos library.
- A Space can use its own proxy if work traffic has to leave by a different route.
- With SideSpace Premium, a Space can be Private — unlisted until you unlock it with Face ID or a passcode.
When you create a Space, SideSpace asks what it is for — work, selling, studying, creating — and suggests the services that usually go with it. You see the list and approve it before anything is added. The free version keeps two Spaces, which is exactly a Work and a Personal one.
A setup that works for most people
- Create a Work and a Personal Focus, each with its own Home Screen pages.
- Keep native apps that support it — mail, calendar, chat — signed in to both accounts, with Focus filters.
- Put web-based work tools, and the notes and screenshots that go with them, in a Work Space.
- Schedule the Work Focus for your working hours.
Short answers
Can I have a work profile on iPhone? Not like Android’s. Focus, managed work apps and separate Spaces cover most of what one does.
How do I stop work notifications after hours? A scheduled Work Focus that only allows work apps and people during working hours.
Can I use one app for work and personal accounts? If it supports account switching, yes. Otherwise, use its website in a separate session.