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Windows IT

Windows 11 To Get Apple-Style App Continuity (windowscentral.com) 27

Posted by msmash from the great-artists-copy dept.
Microsoft is introducing a new "Cross Device Resume" feature for Windows 11, enabling app developers to let users seamlessly continue activity between devices in a manner closely mirroring Apple's Handoff for Macs and iPhones. Unveiled at Build 2025 during a session titled "Create Seamless Cross-Device Experiences with Windows for your app," the feature was demonstrated -- before the session was quietly edited to remove this segment -- by showing Spotify playing a song on an Android phone, then surfacing the Spotify app in the Windows taskbar with a phone icon; clicking this launches Spotify on the PC at precisely the same point in the app as on the phone, preserving playback position for uninterrupted use.

Windows 11 To Get Apple-Style App Continuity More | Reply

Windows 11 To Get Apple-Style App Continuity

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  • And I can count the number of times I've used continuity on no hands. I've never needed to take off so fast from somewhere such that i still need to continue doing what i'm doing to the extent that it can't wait.

    • And the kinds of things it works on don't exactly work the same on other devices such that you'd want to endure the agony of the dumbed down OS on those other devices.

      • Maybe. I think this is one of those features where, if done correctly, users could grow dependent upon it. One major flaw in apple's implementation that comes to mind is that everything you own and use MUST be apple, no exceptions. Likely other arbitrary restrictions as well.

        The first thing the headline made me think of was the macos feature where it restores everything after you restart. In my case, that feature has NEVER worked correctly. Annoyingly, it repositions every single application to just one mon

        • Hm, on mine it literally moves those windows off of the main screen to the newly brought up external monitor. I use 3 monitors and 1 SideCar. When the desktop first comes up, there is indeed a whole shitload of crap on the main display... but they're gone shortly after.
          The maximize bullshit is definitely annoying, though.
    • I use it all the time. It's pretty handy.

      Mostly going from phone to Mac.
      i.e., I'm browsing something on my phone- I want to open it up on the Mac- handoff.
      Looking at my calendar- want to schedule an event without working with a size-crippled interface- handoff.

      It's not a fast thing, in my usage- it's merely a convenient way to move a task you'd started on your phone over to a better interface.

      • Same, and is why I prefer iOS/macOS over my usual Linux workstations...ease of use, just works, elegance, still Unix-like. I've even been able to game enough for my liking with my most recent macbook (M3, Air)

    • Re:I have been using macs for 15 years now (Score:5, Interesting)

      by itzdandy ( 183397 ) on Wednesday May 21, 2025 @01:43PM (#65393491) Homepage

      it's interesting because I use this feature quite often. airdrop and airplay is a constant for me, and I often use continuity camera for meetings because I can convert from a desktop view to my iphone and show poeple things easier. Similarly taking notes etc I can move it to my ipad and draw on things mid-meeting in a way that is much nicer than using the mouse. imessage and facetime 'continuity' might be what keeps me on mac entirely if not for great battery on my macbook and ipads.

      Now, it took a while to remember to use these things and get muscle memory for it, but now that I've done that these are indespensible tools

      • Ya, it's a major convenience. It also took me quite a while to start using it. In fact, I turned it off initially because I didn't want to see the icons in the dock.

  • What I want more (Score:3, Interesting)

    by hackertourist ( 2202674 ) on Wednesday May 21, 2025 @01:19PM (#65393441)

    is continuity across restarts. Get rid of the 'fuck you' style restarts that happen now and:
    - save all open documents
    - save the state of each application
    - after the restart, reopen every application and every document

    • Ya- I've had tastes of what that's like.
      Apps can have some kind of integration on macOS that allows for that to happen.
      Reboot upgrades, machine comes right back up with the document I was working on opened and everything.
      Doesn't work for all apps, and it's not a complete state... like I said- a taste.

      And it tastes good.

      • It works very well on Linux. The only thing I commonly run that doesn't get saved with my X session and restored to its prior state when I return is Steam.

        • Kinda. It depends on per-application XSMP support.

          If you have unsaved work open in $your_favorite_text_editor, it will (usually) not automatically stash it somewhere and open it back up on reboot with session saving.

    • Windows hasn't had "fuck you" style restarts for about 8 years now. Let me guess, you think you're smarter than your computer and decided to turn "notify me when a restart is required" turned off. Windows won't restart if your computer is actively doing something either, it provides APIs for apps to block sleeping and restarting for this reason.

      • Windows 11 still has "fuck you" style restarts today. I have notification switched on, and if I very carefully manage it I can prevent data loss by saving and closing my applications manually. I never get the computer back in the state I had before the restart though.
        I've had occasions where the notification popped up, with the "restart now and lose all your work" button in front of a button I was about to click, and guess what happened.

        And yes, if a restart does happen because you left your computer runnin

        • I've had occasions where the notification popped up, with the "restart now and lose all your work" button in front of a button I was about to click, and guess what happened.

          I guess you didn't read the notification, clicked it, lost your work, and then tried to blame the computer which none the less gave you all the required information along with an option not to press the button?

          And yes, if a restart does happen because you left your computer running a process overnight and it fell idle at 3 AM, guess what: you lose all unsaved work.

          A restart will not occur overnight without you having a notification. Also if you leave unsaved work running on your computer overnight then you deserve to lose it. If your computer is actively calculating something it won't restart.

          The more you talk the more you're describing user error. There's only

          • In my experience, a restart WILL occur overnight without notification. My company sets a deadline for restarts. When that's in place, it's going to restart no matter what.

            Also if you leave unsaved work running on your computer overnight then you deserve to lose it.

            My home computer (MacOS) has been able to do restarts and system upgrades *without* losing any work for years now. Clearly this is a solvable problem.

    • There's APIs to do all that but the application has to implement them. Browsers restore tabs. They don't restart automatically but who the heck wants everything to reopen, possibly taking 5+ minutes to become responsive while everything loads. Easy add a startup entry when notified of shutting down.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by chefren ( 17219 )

      Notepad++ does this, it's pretty nice.

  • I want to be able to move my task bar. I want my start menu organized the way it was in win 10. I don't want a search box in the task bar. I want to organize my stuff. This isn't Google, it's an operating system. The new Outlook is dog shit. The dark theme is high contrast and really jarring. I can't arrange and choose columns for my inbox. Quick parts is gone. So is the quick action function. My company has not forced us to use the new Outlook, but I am not looking forward to changing my workflow. Enshit
  • ...the fact few people want win11??

  • Can we say "data leaks" (Score:4, Insightful)

    by bleedingobvious ( 6265230 ) on Thursday May 22, 2025 @02:45AM (#65394907)

    It's data leaks all the way down.

    Unless everyone imagines this is possible without content being streamed to an interim service?

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