Microsoft Build 2018 brings Windows 10 timeline for Android, iOS
New Delhi : Microsoft Corporation introduces ‘Build 2018’ to highlight Windows 10’s Timeline feature to Android and iPhone. The feature was made available for 700 million Windows 10 users as a part of April 2018 update. The company aims to make its Timeline feature, a gateway to reach an application, photo or video. In short, it does not want its users to simply start an app on their PC and resume it on their mobile handset.
For some time now, Microsoft, Apple and Google have been trying to unite computing experience across devices. Apple has strong control over hardware and software products and gave the best shot among the three tech giants. On the other hand, Google is also trying to unite user experience with cross-platform syncing on Android and Chrome OS.
This time, it’s Microsoft which envisioned its ability to pause and resume applications and services across multiple devices. It boosts to have the most versatile solution of the pack with its Unified Windows Platform (UWP), which shares a common source code irrespective of device form factor. However the adoption of the technology has never been easy and Microsoft is not ready to give up.
On Windows 10, users can go back in time up to 30 days to find things that you have been working on using Timeline. Now, similar kind of experience will be available on Android and iOS devices including iPhone and iPad. It’s an example to highlight Microsoft’s ability to bring its own features to rival platforms instead of adopting them by limiting its services to Windows.
On Android, the Redmond-based software major is taking benefits of Microsoft Launcher app to bring the feature. With Timeline on Microsoft Launcher, it plans to offer cross device app launching experience. On an iPhone or iPad, Microsoft Edge browsing sessions are already included in the Timeline experience on a Windows 10 PC. At Build 2018, Microsoft announced that consumers can access Timeline on an iPhone with Microsoft Edge.
The aforesaid details now concludes that users might be using Windows on their desktop but their mobile device will definitely be powered by Apple’s iOS or Google’s Android. By bringing Timeline to Android and iOS, Microsoft wants its users to start their work on desktop and resume them on these mobile without much effort. But considering Apple’s iOS and lack of native application support on Android, it will have to check the performance of the feature in practical use.