Microsoft Makes Timeline Syncing Paid

  • Greg Burn

Have been enjoying Timeline on your Windows, letting you always remember what you did at a certain moment? Clicking the icon next to Cortana bar leads you straight to the journal, and a little scrolling down will take you to the document or the task you were working on. This feature is even greater if you use multiple Windows devices. Or rather “was greater”?

The new statement by Microsoft has it that, starting in June 2021, Timeline syncing across multiple devices will not be available anymore – at least, for free. The story you have uploaded will remain, but adding new actions and accessing them from a different device will not. Unless you are an AAD user, of course: Timeline syncing is on the plan. The biggest disappointment is that Microsoft 365 plans don’t include Timeline either, though it would have been logical (from the user’s point of view) to make it applicable at least to OneDrive-stored documents.

Timeline also used to embed your actions on connected Android devices with Microsoft Launcher, but this feature is also gone since late 2020. So, it all goes local, and if you only use one machine, it’s okay. But syncing the timeline since June will require an Azure account, so it will make sense only for teams.