Some apps, such as Netflix, have built-in support for user profiles to make this less of an issue. But the feature is not available on every video and audio streaming app out there, and it doesn’t cover other personalized aspects of the experience, like home screen layouts and watchlists. The real solution is to create user profiles for the streaming device itself. These work just like the different user accounts you might have set up on a shared Windows or macOS computer, and you can create one for each person in your home. With some exceptions (we’re looking at you, Roku), this is now possible on many of the dongles and boxes you will use to get content into your home—and setting up the feature will make your life a lot easier. In the case of a child, you get to pick what apps and content they have access to, and set screen time limits. For adults, you (or they) will need to sign in with their own Google account to create a separate user profile—once that’s done, you can select and sign into the relevant streaming services. The Chromecast with Google TV user profile selection screen appears whenever the device starts up. You can also get at it by holding down the Home button on the remote (it has a little house icon on it), or by highlighting your user profile picture (top right) and picking Switch account. Next, enter the name of the new user or, if you want to set up a kid-friendly profile that you can manage, pick This is a Child Profile. Then select a Profile Icon to pick out a picture that represents the profile on the Fire TV software interface. Finish by clicking Add. You’ll see a choice of profiles whenever you start up your Fire TV device, and you can also switch between them by selecting the current user profile—you’ll see it on the left-hand side of the central navigation bar on the home screen. The profile selection screen also shows options for editing and removing profiles. Additional accounts will then have their own apps, content selections, and recommendations, and Apple TV will keep everything apart in the different Apple IDs. To switch accounts, go to Users and Accounts in Settings and pick Switch Current User, or press the Home and Menu buttons together on your remote to open the tvOS Control Center and pick a user account from there. Should you decide that you want your Apple TV all to yourself again, removing users is easy: From Settings, pick Users and Accounts, then select an account name from the list and choose Remove User from Apple TV.
