Continue On is a new feature available in Android 17 (API level
37) that you can implement to provide cross-device continuity
for your users.

Continue On enables users to start an Android
app on one Android device and then transition to another device in their Android
ecosystem, continuing the user journey they started.

## Concepts

Before we dive into details about the new feature, let's define some
foundational concepts grounded in the context of Continue On:

- **sending device (or sender)**: The Android device an activity originates from.
- **receiving device (or receiver)**: The Android device that requests a supported app from available sending devices and eventually receives the transition. The user continues their journey on the receiving device.
- **handoff**: The action of transitioning an app and relevant data from the sending device to the receiving device with the Continue On feature.

## Feature overview

The Continue On feature is designed to work bidirectionally, meaning that any
supported Android device can both send and receive app activities. At launch,
Continue On will first support mobile-to-tablet device transitions. In the
tablet taskbar, the user sees a suggestion for the most recently opened app from
their mobile device. This provides a one-tap affordance for the user to launch
that app, pick up where they left off, and continue to stay productive.
![Handoff suggestion for Google
Chrome](https://developer.android.com/static/images/develop/better-together/continue-on/continue-on-launcher.png) **Figure 1.** The Continue On feature suggests the Google Chrome app for handoff in the taskbar.

## Cross-device journeys with Continue On

While Continue On handles the background processes to listen for and surface
apps to hand off, it is up to you to ensure you're recreating the appropriate
app experience for users to smoothly resume their journey on the receiving
device.

Continue On supports the developer's preference by providing different handoff
options. This lets you offer a differentiated experience based on the
receiving device form factor or even redirect users to an optimized web
experience instead. You may choose to do an exact recreation of the activity,
or, alternatively, customize and choose the experience that best allows your
user to resume their journey in your app ecosystem.

### Activity deeplink handoff

Apps can designate to launch the same native Android app if it is installed and
available on the receiving device. **This is the app-to-app handoff flow.** Upon
successful handoff, the user is then deep-linked to the designated activity.

In the following video, the Continue On feature hands off the Android Google Docs app from
a phone to a tablet and launches the app to the same tab in the open
document.
Your browser doesn't support the video tag. **Figure 2.** Continue On activity hand off.

### Web handoff options

Alternatively, app to web handoff can be offered as a fallback option or
directly implemented with URL handoff. Web handoff is a powerful alternative
that can help users complete more high-touch activities on large screen
productivity devices such as a tablet or laptop.

In the following video, the Continue On feature hands off the Android Gmail app from a
phone to the Gmail web experience on a tablet. It opens the
same email thread.
Your browser doesn't support the video tag. **Figure 3.** Continue On web hand off.

#### Web fallback

If app-to-app handoff is the preferred experience, but the receiving app is not installed on the receiving device, apps can specify a
fallback URL that's launched in the user's default browser. **This is the
app-to-app handoff with web fallback flow.**

#### Direct to web handoff

If the preferred experience for users is the web app, a URL can be designated
for web handoff to be the main experience. **This is the direct-to-web handoff
flow.**

> [!NOTE]
> **Note:** A URL handoff may also be intercepted by the native app on the receiving device if it can handle the URL intent. This is another implementation to prioritize handoff to the Android app and also support fallback to the web.