How to Share One Tablet Between Multiple Kids (Without the Meltdowns)

Multiple kids and one tablet is a common setup, not a compromise, but it comes with a specific kind of friction: whoever isn’t holding it wants it, and whoever is holding it doesn’t want to stop. The fix depends partly on what your tablet can actually do, which differs more between Android and iPad than most parents expect.

Android: Real Separate Profiles

Android tablets support genuine multi-user profiles, each with their own home screen, apps, accounts and settings, kept separate from each other. To set one up:

1. Open Settings → System → Multiple users (some steps here require Android 14 or later).
2. Tap Add user (or Add user or profile → User if that’s what your device shows).
3. Confirm, name the profile, and choose whether to set it up immediately or later.

To switch between users, swipe down twice from the home screen and tap the user icon, or use the dedicated switch-user button on Android Go devices.

For a child-specific version of this, Google Kids Space integrates with Family Link: a parent turns on the “Add/Remove user” setting in Family Link, then adds the child’s profile directly on the tablet. One detail worth knowing — Family Link’s supervision settings apply to the specific child profile they’re tied to, not automatically to every additional profile on the device, so if you add more than one child profile, check that each one is actually supervised the way you expect rather than assuming it carries over.

Real separate profiles solve the sharing problem at the root: each kid’s coloring progress, unlocked content and settings stay with their own profile rather than getting mixed up or overwritten by a sibling.

iPad: No Native Multi-User Support at Home

This is worth being direct about, because it’s easy to assume iPad works the same way. It doesn’t. Apple’s multi-user system (Shared iPad) exists for schools using managed device deployment through Apple School Manager — it isn’t something available to set up on a regular consumer iPad at home.

For a shared family iPad, the realistic options are:

• One shared profile, with Guided Access locking each turn to a single app. This doesn’t separate each kid’s data, but it does stop the current user from wandering into other apps mid-turn. We cover the setup in our guide on setting a time limit on a coloring app.
• A separate Apple ID per child under Family Sharing, if each kid actually has their own device rather than sharing one. This is a bigger setup step and only makes sense if separate devices are already in the picture.
• Accept the shared state and manage it socially — which, for a coloring app specifically, is often the more practical answer, since coloring apps rarely have per-user logins anyway (more on that below).

What This Means for Coloring Apps Specifically

Here’s a limit worth knowing regardless of platform: in our own hands-on testing across the apps we review, none have included a per-child login or separate save slots. Whatever gets colored, completed or unlocked on a shared device applies to that installation of the app, not to whichever kid happens to be holding the tablet at the time. Even with real Android profiles keeping the apps themselves separate, this only matters if each child has the coloring app installed under their own profile — if it’s one shared profile, progress is shared too.

Practically, this means the profile-level separation Android offers is most useful for keeping each kid’s overall tablet experience separate (their own apps, their own home screen), while the coloring app itself is usually a shared, first-come-first-served space either way.

Turn-Taking Tips That Don’t Require Any Setup

If separate profiles aren’t realistic for your household, or you’re on iPad without Guided Access set up yet, the low-tech fixes still do most of the work:

• Use a visible timer, not a verbal estimate — a kitchen timer or phone timer that both kids can see removes “how much longer” as a constant question.
• Set a consistent handoff rule, like finishing the current page before switching, so a turn has a natural, predictable endpoint rather than an abrupt cutoff.
• Praise the handoff itself — a specific “thanks for giving your sister a turn right when the timer went off” reinforces the behavior you want repeated, more effectively than only addressing it when it goes wrong.
• Keep a paper coloring book as a standby, so whoever’s waiting has something to do instead of just watching the clock. Our guide on coloring apps vs. coloring books has more on how the two work well together.

Our Take

If you’re on Android and the fighting is frequent, setting up real separate profiles is worth the ten minutes it takes — it’s the one option that actually gives each kid their own space rather than just managing turns better. On iPad, there’s no equivalent to set up at home, so Guided Access plus a clear turn-taking routine is the realistic path. Either way, don’t expect the coloring app itself to remember who colored what — that part stays shared no matter how the device is set up.

A shared tablet needs apps that suit different ages. See our guide to the best coloring apps by age and our best coloring apps for iPad.

Sources: Delete, Switch, or Add Users (Android Help), Add Users to a Device (Google Kids Space Help)