Handoff for Android and a Mac: which parts of the idea you can have

There is no Handoff between an Android phone and a Mac. Apple's Handoff requires every device to be signed in to iCloud with the same Apple Account, which an Android phone cannot be. What you can have is the same idea in pieces: a web page that follows you from the phone to the Mac, a clipboard that crosses, a login code that arrives where you are typing, and files that move without a cable. What you cannot have is the heart of Handoff, where a half-finished task reopens in the same app on the other device.

Publisher note: The Relay publishes this guide and is one of the products discussed. Details about other products come from each maker's own pages, checked on 1 October 2026. Prices and features change, so confirm before you buy.

What is Apple Handoff?

Apple's page, Use Handoff to continue tasks on your other Apple devices, defines it in one sentence: "With Handoff, you can start work on one Apple device, then switch to another nearby device and pick up where you left off."

The setup has three requirements, in Apple's words:

• "Make sure that your iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch have Bluetooth and Wi-Fi turned on."
• "Make sure that each device is signed in to iCloud with the same Apple Account."
• "On each device, make sure that Handoff is turned on. It's turned on by default."

Then it works like this. You start a task on the iPhone, "such as viewing a webpage or writing an email or document", and keep the app open. On the Mac, Apple says, you "click the app's Handoff icon in the Dock", which carries "a small symbol of the device that is handing off the task".

Apple lists the apps that take part: "Calendar, Clock, Contacts, FaceTime, Freeform, Keynote, Mail, Maps, News, Notes, Numbers, Pages, Reminders, Safari, Stocks, and many third-party apps."

Two things make Handoff what it is. It is automatic, because the Mac notices what the phone is doing without being told. And it carries state: not just "open Mail" but "open that unfinished message, at this point".

Why can an Android phone not join in?

The second requirement rules it out. Handoff is a conversation between devices on one Apple Account, and the page describes only Apple devices. Apple also notes that Handoff "is also required for some other Continuity features, such as Sidecar, Universal Control, and Universal Clipboard". So it sits underneath several of the things iPhone owners take for granted on a Mac. The wider reasons are in why Android and Mac do not talk.

Which parts of the idea exist between Android and a Mac?

Break Handoff into what people actually use it for, and most of the pieces have an answer.

Links

This is the piece that works best. Google's Share tabs page describes Send to your devices: sign in to Chrome with the same Google Account on both devices, send the page, and "the tab will also open automatically in Chrome on your chosen device". Google's page on syncing Chrome describes the quieter version, Tabs from other devices, a list on the Mac of what is open on the phone. That second one is the closest thing to Handoff's automatic feel, because you do not have to send anything. You sit down and the phone's tabs are there.

The limit is the browser. Both features live inside Chrome. If your Mac's browser is Safari, they do not help.

The Relay's link handoff is the same idea without the browser condition. Share a page from the phone and it opens in the Mac's default browser, and the other way round. It is a deliberate share, not an icon that appears in the Dock. Steps for every route are in send a link from Android to a Mac.

Clipboard

Apple's Universal Clipboard depends on Handoff being on. Between Android and a Mac, the free route is KDE Connect. Its wiki says text copied on the computer is "immediately available to paste on your phone", that on Android 10 or later the phone has a "Send Clipboard" button for the other direction, and that the plugin "does not work with images". The Relay syncs the clipboard both ways, for text, images, and links. See clipboard sync between Android and a Mac.

Codes

Not Handoff by name, but the same instinct: the thing that arrived on the phone should be usable on the Mac. Apple does it through Text Message Forwarding, which lets Safari offer the code on the Mac. With Android, Google Messages for web shows the text in a browser tab for you to copy. With The Relay, an SMS that arrives on the phone shows up on the Mac and a login code in it is copied to the Mac's clipboard. More in SMS verification codes from Android on a Mac.

Files

Apple's Handoff page itself points to AirDrop for sending "saved documents and other items". On Android, Google's Quick Share help page says supported phones can send to a Mac through AirDrop. The Relay gives you a window on the Mac that browses the phone's storage.

What does not exist?

App state. This is the honest gap, and no product on this page closes it, including ours.

Apple's page says the app has to be one "that works with Handoff and is also installed on your other device". An Android app and a Mac app have no such arrangement. The Relay does not create one. It moves links, clipboard contents, texts, files, notifications, and calls. It does not know what you were doing inside an app, and it cannot reopen it for you.

Apple's page on calls shows another example: a call under way on the Mac can move to the iPhone, and you can "use Handoff to transfer the call". The Relay shows an incoming call on the Mac, where you can accept or decline it. It does not pass a call in progress from one device to the other.

The workable substitute for app state is not a handoff at all. It is using apps that keep your work in an account and run on both devices: a document editor with a web version, web mail, a notes app with a browser version. You do not pick up where you left off through the Dock. You open the same document, and it is up to date.

So is there a Handoff for Android?

For web pages, yes, in effect: Chrome if you use it on both, The Relay if you do not. For the clipboard, codes, and files, there are working answers, free and paid. For the task itself, no.

If links are all you want, do not buy anything. Use Chrome on both devices. The Relay is worth its $19.99, paid once, when you want the set: links, clipboard, texts and codes, notifications, calls, files, and the phone as a webcam, in one app on your own network. It needs Android 8.0 or later and macOS 13 Ventura or later, and both devices on the same local network or in Bluetooth range. Chrome's features work through your Google Account, so they reach a phone that is somewhere else. The Relay does not.

Apple built Handoff so that an iPhone and a Mac behave like one device. An Android phone and a Mac will not do that. They can be made to talk, though, and for most of the moments Handoff covers, that is enough.

Questions people ask

Does Handoff work with Android?

No. Apple requires each device to be signed in to iCloud with the same Apple Account, and its page describes only Apple devices.

What is the closest thing to Handoff for a Pixel or Samsung Galaxy and a MacBook?

For web pages, Chrome's Send to your devices and Tabs from other devices, or The Relay's link handoff, which opens the page in the MacBook's default browser. For copied text and images, a clipboard sync tool.

Can I continue an email I started on my Android phone on my Mac?

Not through a handoff. Use a mail service that saves drafts to your account and open it on the Mac. Nothing passes an unfinished draft from an Android app to a Mac app directly.

Does The Relay put an icon in the Dock like Handoff does?

No. Link handoff in The Relay starts when you share a page from the phone, and the page then opens in the Mac's default browser.