I’ve been emailing myself half-written drafts for longer than I’d like to admit. It’s a habit of mine to start something on my phone as soon as the idea kicks in and then run out of patience.
If I don’t forget, I send it to my inbox so I can finish it later on a bigger screen, where typing doesn’t feel like thumb wars. But in all fairness, it’s a useful workaround for a problem that shouldn’t exist anymore in 2026.
Android’s ecosystem has never quite gotten cross-device continuity like Apple’s, and my annoyance proves I run into this every week.
Android 17 has a dedicated feature built specifically to kill this habit. I’ve used Continue On between my Google Pixel 10 Pro and Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra, and it has made me rethink how much unnecessary friction I’ve endured.
I’ve been emailing myself drafts for so long
The workaround instantly became a habit
It starts the same way almost every time. I start writing something in Gmail on my phone, and then I hit a wall. It could be my thumbs getting tired or the screen size that bothers me.
Instead of trusting myself to remember where I left off, I send the draft to my inbox.
Later, on a tablet or a laptop, I dig through my inbox looking for the email I sent myself an hour earlier.
Don’t get me wrong, the technique works perfectly fine, but it adds a lot of friction for something that should take a tap or two. I kept doing it irrespective of the hassle.
Continue On is supposed to make this workaround pointless
One tap in the taskbar, no self-email required
Continue On is Google’s version of Apple’s Handoff. You start something on your phone, and it shows up as a one-tap suggestion in a connected tablet’s taskbar.
This lets me resume my task, and it works both ways.
Gmail is a better example of why this is more useful than opening the same app on two devices. Start reading an email in Gmail on your phone, and Continue On can bring that same thread to your tablet.
If the native app isn’t available there, Android can fall back to Gmail on the web. So there are no stoppages.
The feature has led me to ditch the workaround that I’ve been following for years, at least when I have my tablet with me.
Setting it up wasn’t as simple as using it
Buried settings and a few false starts
I used my personal Gmail account on both devices; otherwise, the feature won’t work.
Turning the feature on wasn’t obvious, as I had to dig into settings below the average surface-level menus.
To turn it on, go to Settings > Connected devices > Connection preferences > Cross-device services > Continue activity. Tap Set up and enable Tasks specifically.
When I found the correct path, I ran my first test. I wrote a message in Gmail on the phone, left it hanging mid-draft, and then picked up the tablet expecting it to be there.
It took me a few tries at first before anything showed up in the taskbar. Then it caught on automatically.
The draft appeared where I’d left it, and continuing on the tablet from the exact point worked the way it was supposed to.
It’s not just about my inbox
Continue On could make Android feel more like one system
Google has also demonstrated Continue On with Google Docs and Chrome. In Docs, a document can move from a phone to a tablet and open at the same document and position.
With Chrome, the feature can take you back to the same browsing activity instead of making you search for the page again.
This is probably an extension of the feature that I used a few years back, where I could share links from a Pixel to Chrome for Windows with a single tap.
Think about how often you start something on your phone because it’s the device in your pocket all the time.
Maybe I’m reading an article in Chrome, making changes to a document in Docs, or dealing with an email thread in Gmail. The phone is great for starting a task or jotting down quick ideas, but it’s never the final place to finish them.
Continue On is designed with that in mind.
I no longer have to remember where I left off; it just knows.
The device matters less than the task
That’s the part I actually like
What I like about Continue On isn’t that it moves Gmail from one screen to another, even though it’s an amazing feat. It’s that I don’t have to think about which device I started on.
I can begin something on my phone and then continue it on my tablet when I want bigger screen real estate. The hardware isn’t the important thing here; the task at hand needs to meet a deadline.
For many years, Android has seeded numerous tools to share things between devices. I can send myself a link, save something to the cloud, open the same app on another device, or email myself a draft.
Continue On makes these tasks feel unnecessary.
It’s not as universal as it sounds
Developers still have to do their part
Continue On won’t magically work with every Android app on your phone. Developers have to implement Google’s handoff APIs for the activities they want to make transferable.
This means that adoption will vary from app to app.
That will also be the biggest hurdle early on. Although Gmail, Docs, and Chrome make up a strong starting point, the feature would improve tenfold as soon as third-party apps join the mix.
There’s also no laptop handoff at launch, which is a limitation. Google is only focusing on Continue On for mobile-to-tablet transitions, and it would be amazing if Google stretched support to Windows.
Still, using it across a Pixel phone and Samsung tablet makes the idea more compelling. I don’t need two Google devices for Android to understand that I want to continue what I was doing.
By the end of the day, it could make my inbox a little less cluttered with emails from me to me.
