When you first set up your android mobile phone, it is mandatory to provide a google account. The account is required to access the Google Play Store and Google Play services, background processes, and various applications. Some people call the google account gmail account for the simple reason that gmail is the most used google service, besides the search engine of course! so for the sake of familiarity we will refer to google account as gmail account from now on in this article.
Your search queries and app preferences are saved to your gmail account. therefore you can use the same preferences on all your android devices. if you change your preferences on one device, they automatically change on the other devices as well. however, you can always change the primary or default gmail account on your mobile phone. Most of the people advise that on an android device, one should have only one gmail account. however, about a year ago, I changed my primary email to yahoo! mail on one of my mobile phones and so far I haven’t had any problems. I do not advise you to change your main account from gmail to yahoo! mail, but if you change, please do so at your own discretion.
This article lists the methods to change your primary or default gmail account.
what is a primary gmail account?
the main google account is used for the google now card, voice commands and all searches made with google. all searches are done through the main account and may pose a privacy issue in some cases. For example, you may end up compromising your privacy if you conduct a personal search using your official account. It is not advisable to switch accounts as it could cause Google Now to malfunction. to avoid privacy and functional issues, it is sometimes good to replace the main account.
points to ponder
Before proceeding to change the main gmail account on your mobile phone, please note the following points:
- the change may delete data and contacts belonging to the main outgoing account. therefore, back up all your contacts and other data.
- if you are about to replace your main gmail account with a different email service like yahoo!, hotmail, rediffmail, etc., please do so at your own discretion.
- To make any account the default primary account, make sure it’s the first account listed in settings > accounts > google.
If you have multiple gmail accounts registered on your android mobile phone and you don’t want the first account to appear as the main account, please delete it and add the next account to the list to make it the main account. however, if you want to replace the primary account with a new account, you will need to delete the existing primary gmail account and add a new account. let’s see the methods to change the main gmail account.
change the main gmail account on the mobile phone
The names of options and menus may differ on different android devices.
- Go to Settings > Accounts > Google and tap the More option and select Remove account.
- When prompted to confirm the account removal, tap Remove Account.
- After removing the account, return to Account Settings screen and click Add Account. Select Google or any other email that you wish add.
- The new account added becomes the primary email account for your Android device.
here is another method to change the main gmail account on your android device.
- Go to Google settings from within your phone’s Settings or by opening the Google Settings app.
- Go to Accounts & privacy.
- Select Google Account > choose the email to replace your current primary account. The selected email becomes the primary email account on the selected Android device.
Changing the primary email account on your android device is simple, but be careful. Don’t forget to back up your data and contacts before continuing.
If you have any questions about this topic, feel free to ask in the comments section. we at techwelkin and our community of readers will try to help you. thanks for using techwelkin!