What you need to know
- Qualcomm announced Snapdragon Seamless, a technology that aims to better connect devices.
- Snapdragon Seamless will better enable cross-device communication between different OEMs and OSes.
- Qualcomm expects the first experiences to roll out this year.
Qualcomm unveiled more than just a new flagship mobile chip at its annual Snapdragon Summit. As part of Qualcomm's push to enable experiences across various categories of devices, the company is announcing Snapdragon Seamless, a new way to bring all your devices together.
The premise of Snapdragon Seamless is simple: to allow devices from different OSes to discover, connect, and interact with each other in a seamless way as if they were always meant to. This includes Android smartphones, Windows PCs, and other Snapdragon devices like earbuds, smartwatches, and smart glasses.
This should enable seamless multi-device experiences that will let keyboards work across device types or wireless earbuds intelligently switch between connected devices. Files can also be dragged and dropped from a smartphone to a PC, among other use cases.
One example is that your phone may record you doing a workout to help guide you through your movements, while your smartwatch collects your workout data, such as heart rate, steps, etc., while all this information is projected onto your smart glasses so you can keep track of your exercise in real-time without needing to check your wrist or phone constantly.
Cross-device communication isn't much of a problem when you're in the same ecosystem, particularly for Apple or even Samsung Galaxy users. But it can be tricky when you bring in devices from different OEMs, even if they all use Android. The idea is to remove brand lock-in to give consumers more choice by improving the way these devices talk to each other.
"Snapdragon Seamless fundamentally breaks down the barriers between OEMs, devices and operating systems," says Dino Bekis, VP and GM of wearables and mixed signal solutions at Qualcomm. "It's the only cross-device solution to truly put the user first."
The technology will be integrated into Qualcomm's various Snapdragon platforms for phones, wearables, PCs, automotive, and more. The company says to expect various OEMs, as well as Microsoft and the Android ecosystem, to begin enabling experiences as early as this year.
