One of the greatest benefits of having several Apple devices is the fact of being able to use the advantages that the famous Apple ecosystem gives you, and one of these advantages is Handoff, the easiest way to synchronize your iPhone, iPad and Mac to work together with them.
What is Handoff for?
Handoff is one of the advantages that you have if you enjoy the Apple ecosystem, specifically, if you use both the iPhone, the iPad, and the Mac, mainly, although it also works with the Apple Watch, however, on the latter device it might not be as useful as the 3 named above.
In a simple way we can define Handoff as the function that gives you the possibility of starting to perform an action on one device, and continue it on a different one. For example, you can start editing a text document in pages on the iPad, and without touching anything at all, continue editing instantly on your Mac, or another example, you are visiting a web page through safari on the iPhone, And since you want to see it on a somewhat larger screen, you go directly to the iPad.
That is, with Handoff you can start an activity on one device and continue it on another device without losing sight of what you were doing. This function can be used with many Apple applications, such as Calendar, Contacts, Pages, Safari … and there are even many developers who have also implemented this function in their applications.
Requirements to enjoy Handoff
First of all, and although it seems obvious, you need to have at least two Apple devices that support this function, that is, an iPhone, an iPad, a Mac, an Apple Watch or an iPod Touch.
Second, the devices mentioned above have to meet the following requirements:
- In the case of the iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch, which are updated to a version of iOS 8 or later.
- In the case of the Mac, it has a version of OS X Yosemite or later.
- In the case of the Apple Watch, which has a version of watchOS 1.0 or later.
Finally, the devices you want to use Handoff with have to be close by and meet the following requirements
- Each of the devices is signed in to iCloud with the same Apple ID.
- All devices have Bluetooth enabled.
- The devices have Wi-Fi connection enabled.
- All devices have Handoff enabled.
Activate HandOff like this
If you have at least two devices that are compatible with the Handoff function and you want to use it, you have to activate this function on these devices, for this we recommend that you follow the steps indicated below.
- On the Mac: Choose Apple menu> System Preferences and click General. Once here, select “Allow Handoff between this Mac and your iCloud devices.”
- On your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch: go to Settings> General> AirPlay and Handoff and turn on Handoff.
- On Apple Watch: In the liphone Watch app, go to General and select “Activate Handoff.” Apple Watch supports the use of HandOff from the watch to the iPhone or Mac.
Using it is that simple
If you have reached this point and want to know how you can use this function, which will undoubtedly make you enjoy a fantastic experience when working with different Apple devices, you have to perform the following steps.
- Open an application that works with Handoff, as we have mentioned previously, not only native Apple applications give you the possibility to perform Handoff, but some developers have also implemented this function in their apps.
- Use the app to start a task, like compose an email or a document.
- Continue with that task on another device, to do so:
- If you’re switching to a Mac, click the Handoff app icon in the Dock.
- If you’re switching to an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, open the app selector just as you would when switching apps, then tap the app at the bottom of the screen.
