Summary created by Smart Answers AI
In summary:
- Tech Advisor reports that Android 17 introduces ‘Continue On’, Google’s answer to Apple’s Handoff feature from 2014, enabling seamless task transfer between Android devices.
- The feature allows users to start activities like browsing Chrome or editing Google Docs on one device and continue on another using the same Google account.
- Continue On provides flexibility by transferring tasks from native apps to web interfaces when apps aren’t installed on both devices, with Android 17 expected to launch in June or July.
Google has revealed a handy new feature for Android 17 that works similarly to Apple’s Handoff, allowing you to pick up where you left off between multiple Android devices.
As detailed on Google’s Android Developer website, Continue On lets you start a task on one device, and continue it seamlessly on another, just so long as they’re both active on the same Google account.
So, you might be browsing a website in Chrome on your Google Pixel 10 with Android 17. Pick up your Pixel Tablet (remember those?), and you’ll note a Handoff Suggestion (yes, they really do seem to be using the ‘Handoff’ term) to the right of the tablet taskbar, containing the Chrome logo and a little phone silhouette icon.
Tap the latter, and you’ll jump straight into the exact same point of the article you were last at on your phone.
The same seamless hop between devices is demonstrated in Google Docs, which really hints at the boost to productivity this Continue On feature could bring.
Continue On the web
While it’s designed to work between the same apps installed on both devices, it seems this new Continue On feature can be made to work with a web interface instead.
The example given is that you might be checking an email in the Gmail app on your Android phone. Tap the Continue On prompt in the tablet, and it takes you to the web Gmail app instead.
Despite moving from an app to a web app, the exact same email thread is instantly surfaced.
As Google explains, this latter function can be used as a helpful fallback for those occasions where you don’t have the same app installed on both devices.
About time too, you might be thinking. Apple introduced Handoff wayback in 2014, allowing you to sync tasks between iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite. It’s been a key feature for iPhone and Mac users ever since.
Google has taken its sweet time getting something similar onto its platform. The first signs that Google might be working on something of this sort appeared last June, when mentions of an ‘App Cast’ function started appearing in Google Play Services.
Android 17 is expected to finally bring us Google’s take on Handoff (and much more besides) when it rolls out June or July.
