Google’s “Push” feature is a response to Apple application transfers

Google has been working for years to provide better integration between Android phones and Chromebooks with features like sound. Telephone concentrator, but with its new “Push” feature, Google seems to be closer to providing a suitable alternative to Apple’s Handoff feature for Mac and iPhone.

After being noticed in the first look at Android 12 in February, as part of its APK Insight series, 9to5Google spotted a recent update that sheds new light on a promising upcoming feature for Google phones and laptops.

According to 9to5Google, Push will be introduced as a new button in Android 12 that will allow you “to use your phone’s apps directly on [a Chromebook] when you’re at home, ”so you can more easily switch between devices without wasting time figuring out where you left off.

On Chrome OS devices, the transfer from Android phones will be handled by a new feature called “Eche” which supports app mirroring from Android phones. Unfortunately, the inclusion of a string (com.google.pixel.exo) suggests that the new push functionality may be exclusive to Google’s proprietary Pixel phones, at least initially.

9to5Google has found that there is currently two ways to push an app from a phone to a Chromebook: open the Recents menu in Android 12 and manually press the push button, or click on one of the mirrored notifications that appear in Chrome OS, eliminating the need to touch your phone.

However, instead of running the new app natively on your Chromebook, it looks like Push works by streaming video from your phone to your Chromebook, which seems a bit odd considering most Chromebooks already come with it. the ability to run Android apps. natively in Chrome OS.

That said, if Google wanted to save the current state of the app on your phone in order to send that data to your Chromebook and reopen it There, 9to5Google says that this process could force developers to make big changes to the way their apps are coded, which could make the feature much more difficult to implement in the millions of different Android apps.

Currently, it’s unclear when Google’s new Push feature for Android phones and Chromebooks will be officially available. But with the rumor that Google is gearing up for a big product showcase for the Pixel 6 and other Google devices this fall (most likely October if previous events are any indication), there’s a good chance Push will be released before the end of the year.