How-To

How to Change Default Google Account in Seconds

It is easy to change the default Google Account for multiple Google services. It’s useful if you use multiple Google Accounts in the Chrome browser.

It is straightforward to change the default Google Account for Google Calendar, Gmail, and other Google services. It’s instrumental if you use multiple Google Accounts in the Chrome browser.

It’s also easy to switch between Google accounts in the Chrome browser. But if you use one account more frequently than others, you may want to change your default Google account to that one.

How to Change Default Google Account

The trick to setting the default Google account in Chrome is understanding how the default account is selected in the first place. There isn’t some setting buried in your Google account that lets you select this. Instead, Google uses the initial account you used to log in as the “default” Google account.

This is how Google describes the “default account” on their support page.

In many cases, your default account is the one you signed in with first. On mobile devices, your default account can vary depending on your device’s operating system and the apps you use.

The first step to fixing this is signing out of whatever account you’re currently using in Chrome.

1. Go to Google.com and select the profile image on the upper right of the Google search page.

2. Select Sign out to sign out of that Google account.

sign out of google

3. Now that you aren’t logged into any Google accounts, you can sign in to your first account. This will be the default Google Account. Select Sign in at the upper right of the Google search page to do this.

sign into google

4. Now, you’ll want to select or add your default Google account. If you’ve never logged into it before, you’ll need to select Use another account. Otherwise, select the account.

use another account

5. Once you log in, you’ll see the default profile image displayed for that new account.

signed in

This account is now your default Google account for all Google services you use, like Gmail or Google Calendar.

Using Multiple Google Accounts

If you wanted to, you could sign into a secondary account by selecting the profile image again and selecting that other account.

switch accounts

Once you sign into the second Google account, the original account you signed into remains the default. You can see this if they select the profile image again. You’ll see that you’re signed in to the second Google account, but the first account you logged into displays “Default” to the right.

This means that you’re signed in to the second Google account for the current Google app you’re using (in this case, Google Search).

default user

But if you open a new tab and visit another Google service like Gmail or Google Calendar, you’ll see that it still uses the default Google account.

gmail

This is useful when most of the Google services you use are under one Google account, and you rarely use the other account except for a few services.

You can change Google accounts like this on Android or iOS devices as well.

Using Google Chrome to Manage Multiple Accounts

It’s far more common that people use different Google accounts for different purposes. And they need to use all of their Google services on their account.

Using Google’s “default user” approach in the previous section can become a hassle. Instead, it’s better to make use of Google Chrome’s multiple profile features.

To get started using this, open your browser and select the profile image in the menu bar at the top of the Google Chrome window.

Here, you’ll have various options;

  1. You can select Sign in again to log back into the account you used when you last had Chrome open. If you close Chrome while signed in, it’ll automatically sign into that account the next time you open it.
  2. Select Guest to use Google Chrome without any account at all. This is useful when you don’t want bookmarks, search history, or browser history logged with any of your Google accounts.

sign into browser

3. Select Add to add a new Google account to your Chrome browser. When you do this, you can assign the account a unique profile image so that you’ll recognize it.

add google account

4. If you select one of the existing accounts, it’ll open an entirely new Chrome browser window signed into that other Google account.

multiple google accounts

It’s also simple to remove any of these accounts from your Google Chrome browser as well.

Summing Up

This is the most efficient way to use multiple Google accounts. It lets you use two or more Google Chrome windows, signed into one of your Google accounts as the default in that browser window.

This means you don’t have to worry about constantly switching between accounts when using different Google services in that browser.

Chrome isn’t the only browser that allows you to sign into multiple Google accounts. Other browsers offer this feature as well.

Keep in mind that you can keep your Chrome browser activity and logs synced across all devices as well.

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