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Windows Timeline is coming to Android in the Microsoft Launcher
- As part of its cross-platform strategy, Microsoft announced support for Timeline in the Microsoft Launcher.
- The feature lets you pick up where you left off across multiple devices.
- Microsoft did not say when it will update Microsoft Launcher with Timeline.
During its Build developer conference today, Microsoft announced that the Microsoft Launcher on Android will soon support its Windows Timeline feature.
Timeline first arrived with the latest Windows 10 update. At its core, is an interactive log of everything you worked on. Similar to Apple’s Continuity feature, Timeline lets you pick up where you left off from a difference device.
It also keeps track of your progress for 30 days. You can clean out your Timeline progress or choose to stop tracking activity from your machine at any time.
Unlike Continuity, which remains exclusive to Apple products, Timeline ties to your Microsoft account. As such, you can move across devices and see the same thing, so long as you log into your account on those devices. With today’s announcement, those devices now include smartphones. You can open and edit a Word document from your home PC, see that document on Timeline, and continue to edit it on your Android smartphone.
Kevin Gallow, Microsoft’s head of the Windows developer platform, told TechCrunch that the Microsoft Launcher will help you find supported apps in the Play Store. Keep in mind that developers need to update their apps to support Timeline, so not every Windows app that is also available on Android will be visible on Timeline.
Alongside Timeline for the Microsoft Launcher is the new “Your Phone” feature, which lets you respond to your phone’s text messages and share photos from your computer. Your Phone also lets you see and respond to your phone’s notifications from your computer, though Microsoft said the name of the feature is not final and could still change.
All this is part of Microsoft’s cross-platform strategy to expand its reach. The company abandoned its phone operating system and, instead, chose to focus on its software efforts on third-party platforms like Android and iOS.
Microsoft did not say when it will update the Microsoft Launcher to support Timeline. We will keep close tabs as Build continues to unfold.