Android 17 takes a big step toward Apple-style ecosystem continuity with 'Continue On'

Google made a ton of new announcements at I/O 2026, but Gemini and its AI ambitions clearly overshadowed Android. Still, on the sidelines of I/O, Google announced an extremely useful and important new feature coming to Android 17.

Called Continue On, the feature is designed to make moving your tasks between Android devices a whole lot smoother. It will let you start using an app on one Android device and then seamlessly continue the same work on another device.

The new capability was detailed in a developer blog post, and it’s clearly part of Google’s ongoing effort to improve Android’s cross-device services across phones, tablets, and eventually other form factors.

At launch, Continue On will first support phone-to-tablet handoffs. That means if you’re using an app on your Android phone and then pick up your tablet, Android will be able to suggest that same app directly in the tablet taskbar. Tapping the app will take you back to where you left off.

Google says the feature works bidirectionally, meaning supported Android devices can both send and receive app sessions. So in the future, you could bounce between multiple Android devices without constantly reopening apps, hunting for tabs, or manually navigating back to the same screen.

Google also shared some examples using Google Docs and Gmail. In one demo, a Google Docs document opened on a phone and continued on a tablet in the same tab and document state.

In another example, Gmail transitioned from the Android app on a phone to the Gmail web interface on a larger-screen device, opening the same email thread.

Interestingly, Google is also allowing apps to continue across devices in multiple ways. Some apps may open directly into the native Android app on the second device, while others could hand off to a web experience instead.

There’s also a fallback system. If the receiving device doesn’t have the Android app installed, Continue On can open the task in a web browser instead, so users can still continue what they were doing.

Continue On will be available with the rollout of the Android 17 release candidate in the coming weeks.