Handoff in iOS 8 and Yosemite (Beta)

I’ve been trying to get Handoff, one of of iOS 8’s Continuity features, to work since the betas of iOS 8 and Yosemite were available on the Apple Developer Site with very limited success. Now that iOS 8 is GM, it seems to finally work. Here are the steps I took to get it working.

First off, you need to make sure all of your devices are logged into the same Apple ID account. If you tap on the Settings app and scroll down to iCloud, iOS 8 now shows you which Apple ID you are logged in with, very handy. Same for OS X Yosemite, go to Settings > iCloud and on the left side beneath your photo is the active account. This was the case for me, so I moved on to the next step.

The main problem I had was my Mac and my iPad were not showing up in my iPhone’s Bluetooth settings panel. Restarting both my iPad and iPhone, as well as toggling Bluetooth off then on seemed to solve this issue. Note: It can take your iPad or iPhone a LONG time to see other devices (e.g. Mac, iPad, or iPhone) via Bluetooth, so you have to be patient.

Once both devices were restarted, all my other devices started to show up in the Bluetooth settings area. If this isn’t the case, try restarting again. Once you “see” them in Bluetooth settings, Handoff will work.

Of course, Handoff only works with apps that support this feature, such as Maps, Messages, Mail, Safari, Calendar, etc. I’ve already seen third party apps supporting it, so make sure to update (ideally via auto update) the apps on your devices. Also, I’ve only been able to activate Handoff (for iOS devices) from the Lock Screen. Maybe this is how it works. I really like how OS X Yosemite handles it, with a new icon on the left end of your Dock. If you know how to activate Handoff other than from the Lock Screen, I’m all ears!!!

[In iOS 8, a “grey” icon appears in the bottom left corner of the lock screen of your device. Swipe up (and possibly enter your passcode) to active Handoff.]

Finally, there still seems to be a few glitches. I noticed my iPhone or iPad didn’t always show the icon for the app I had activated on my Mac. For example, I’d bring Mail to the foreground, check my iPhone’s lock screen and see the little (grey) Mail icon in the lower left. Then I’d switch to Safari on my Mac. Sometimes the iPhone would update the icon to Safari, sometimes it wouldn’t. However, I’m sure this feature will just get better in future updates. For now, I’ve been able to get it work between Mac and iOS devices and between multiple iOS devices.

Not rocket science but hopefully this helps.

Norm

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