Recently, I wrote about how Apple’s Continuity features keep me locked into the Apple ecosystem because Android and Windows have no answer to Apple’s incredible cross-device seamless integration.
It seems that Android is finally getting started to compete with Apple in this domain. The upcoming Android 17 is bringing a feature that makes switching between your Android devices feel natural. It’s called Continue On, and it lets you start work on one device and seamlessly pick it up on another Android device.
At launch, the feature focuses on mobile-to-tablet transitions. When you open your tablet, you will see a suggestion in the taskbar for the most recently opened app from your phone. One tap, and you are right back where you started. It’s similar to how Apple’s Handoff feature works.
How does it work?
Google calls the device you start on the sender and the one you switch to the receiver. The handoff, which is the transition, happens in the background, so you don’t have to do anything complicated. The app just picks up where you left off.
There are a couple of ways this can go, depending on how the developer builds the app. If the app is installed on your tablet, it will deep-link you directly to the activity you were in. Think of opening a Google Docs tab on your phone and having the same document open on your tablet.
What if the app isn’t on your tablet?
If the app is not installed on the tablet, developers can set up a web fallback. So even if the app isn’t installed on the receiving device, it will open the equivalent web experience in your browser instead. Gmail, for example, can hand off from the Android app on your phone to the full Gmail web experience on your tablet, opening the same email thread.
Developers also have the option to skip the app entirely and send users straight to the web version if that is the better experience for a larger screen. Continue On is available in Android 17, and developers can start building support for it now.
It’s highly likely that Google will also add this feature to its upcoming Googlebook laptops, finally providing users with a competitive ecosystem to Apple’s offerings. It’s still early days, but it’s a step in the right direction.