Android Will Finally Get Its Own Version of Apple’s “Handoff” Feature.
Like it or not, the Apple ecosystem has its advantages. Take, for example, the “Handoff” feature: if you have at least two devices connected, such as an iPhone and a Mac, you can start a task on one and transfer it to the other. You can start reading an article in Safari on your iPhone and then continue it when you get to your Mac. Or, say you’re on a FaceTime call on your Mac but need to run, you can simply switch to your iPhone to continue the conversation without calling the other person back. It’s not perfect, but it works .
On Android, the situation is somewhat different. While some features work across devices, such as call forwarding, Android phone users often can’t open the same task on a tablet, and vice versa. If you’re viewing a spreadsheet in Google Sheets on your phone, you can’t simply drag it to a tablet to view it larger; instead, you need to open Sheets on the tablet and then find the document you need. The same applies to many other Google apps, such as Chrome, Gmail, Drive, and Docs: Android would truly benefit from a dedicated cross-platform option. Fortunately, it’s already on the way in the form of a new feature called “Continue.”
How does the “Continue” feature work on Android?
Google announced the “Continue In” feature during its “What’s New in Android” discussion on Tuesday. As 9to5Google reports , it’s a new feature introduced in Android 17 and will be available in Android 17 RC1. If you’ve ever used Handoff in the Apple ecosystem, you’ll understand the basic idea behind “Continue In”: when you open an app on one of your Android devices, you’ll notice the app appears on the other device with a “Handoff Suggestion” label above it.
Let’s say you’re working on a Google Docs document on your Pixel phone. When you open your Pixel tablet, you’ll notice a Google Docs icon with a special label appears in the document—even if you already have Google Docs in your Dock. Tapping the standard Google Docs icon opens the app as usual; tapping the Handoff prompt opens the Google Docs document you’re working on on your phone. Alternatively, you might be reading a Gmail conversation on your phone but prefer to finish it on your tablet. In this case, the Handoff prompt is Chrome: tap it on your tablet, and you’ll open the Gmail conversation on the larger screen.
Google seems to be taking its time implementing the “Continue Reading” feature. While the feature will work in a “bilateral mode” in the future, at launch it only works from phone to tablet. This means you can’t transfer a Google Docs document from tablet to phone, only from phone to tablet. Furthermore, Google states that developers have the power to decide how this feature works in their apps. They can open the same app on both devices (Google Docs to Google Docs) or open the web app from the mobile app (Gmail mobile app to Gmail web app in Chrome). Developers can also choose a combination: the default might be to switch between apps, but developers can choose to switch to the web app if the user doesn’t have that app installed on the tablet.