One of the most impactful changes I’ve made to my workflow in the past couple of years is to use multiple profiles in Chrome. This allows me to run Chrome for multiple users at the same time.

You may be thinking, “Ok, that’s kind of nice – but I can already sign in to different gmail accounts within the same browser window. So what’s the additional benefit here?”

Separate Contexts

The real advantage to maintaining these profiles is that each profile gives you a separate, isolated Chrome context. That means that all of your bookmarks, history, extensions, saved usernames, etc. all stay within the context of one profile.

As a developer, this is a lifesaver. I can have one profile linked to my personal email and one linked to my work email. The work one has an uncluttered list of bookmarks that only pertain to work, remembers my test account usernames, only uses extensions that are relevant to work, and doesn’t reveal embarrassing personal search history like "Can you live off of pizza alone?" when I’m in the middle of a demo. If I were to leave my company my personal profile remains unaffected - there’s no need to rearrange my bookmarks or do any kind of cleanup.

Testing With Multiple User Accounts

You’re probably already done something like this anyway by using an incognito window when testing an application. This does accomplish the goal of keeping your main browser in an isolated environment from your test environment. But separate profiles lets you take this a step further.

Profiles let you test an application with multiple user sessions simultaneously with ease. I regularly keep a separate browser tab open for a demo admin user, a logged out user, and a logged user for applications. Each one has their own history and can persist their session across days or weeks unlike an incognito window which will be lost when it’s closed.

Setting up multiple profiles separates your concerns for how your browser experience is organized. When you only have one Chrome profile, it’s easy for browser data to get out of hand – especially with regard to having too many bookmarks and extensions. Adopting multiple profiles allows you to keep what’s most relevant at hand, without having to open different browsers at the same time.

It’s Not Just Chrome!

Although I’ve mentioned the profiles feature specifically for Chrome, it also exists in other major browsers like Firefox, Edge, and now even Safari. The same techniques and benefits outlined here can be used in any of those browsers as well.