How to Enable and Use Shared Experiences in Windows 10
Shared Experiences (Project Rome) is a developing feature in Windows 10 that allows you to send links, files, and messages between devices.
Starting with Windows 10 Anniversary Update, Shared Experiences (Project Rome) only worked between Windows 10 devices. Now, starting with Creators Update (version 1703), this handy feature allows you to start a task on one device and finish it on another. It also lets you set up a remote control or companion app on another PC or mobile device. It’s comparable to Apple’s Handoff feature.
Windows 10 Shared Experiences
To turn Shared Experiences on or off, head to Settings > System > Shared Experiences and toggle the switch to enable or disable it. Note that you can also choose to share or receive data from only your devices or any device nearby from here.
Since this is a relatively new feature, few apps take advantage of it as developers haven’t implemented it yet. However, depending on the app, you can use it to remote control applications, share web links, or send messages between Windows 10, Windows 10 Mobile, Xbox, iOS, and Android. Hopefully, when the Fall Creators Update is released later this year, more apps will take advantage of the Shared Experiences feature.
Apps that Support It
A couple of apps with the Shared Experiences feature built-in are Sharame (Android Client) and Notepad U. In the example below, you can see the UWP Notepad U app. It’s a simple light notepad app that lets you create text files, and with the Project Rome feature built-in, you can click the computer link from the top toolbar and then find the device you want to share the file with. So when I send this text file to my laptop, the Notepad U app opens on it, and I can start again where I left off.
Notepad U is an app that uses the Shared Experiences feature. So I can send this text file to other nearby devices and finish working where I left off.
Again, it’s hard to find apps with Shared Experiences built-in, and the process isn’t perfect yet. I searched the Store for Project Rome and got a handful of apps. While testing Sharame and Notepad U, I had the best results with Notepad U. Sharame couldn’t find my Android device, and it kept crashing on my Windows 10 computer anyway.
Example of sharing a link from one device to another with the Sharame app.
Summing Up
Of course, you will need the same app installed on both devices, be signed in to your Microsoft account, and have the Shared Experiences feature turned on. While still in its infancy, this feature could become a staple of Windows 10 moving forward. Especially once it gets integrated into Office.
Have you used the Shared Experiences feature in Windows 10? Leave a comment below and let us know what you think of it or what its potential could be.
4 Comments
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Danny
Is there way to uninstall or disable (a registry hack) this feature other than turning it off in the shared across experiences window. I have tried it both ways (on or off), but I get a notification 3-4 times a day that there is a problem with my Microsoft account. When I click on it, it takes me to the Shared Experiences site in the settings window. Once there, it asks me sign into my Microsoft account. I use my Microsoft account to sign into my computer (all 4 of them), I do not use a local account. This is another one of Microsoft’s many problems with the Creators Update. Here it is, 17 July, some 97 days after it was supposedly released on 11 April and I still do not have the Privacy Update to start the installation process of the Creators Update.
James
I am having the same problem of getting an alert that the Shared Experiences setting needs fixing. I had a MS “tech” take over my computer via remote control. She was in India. She messed around for 10 minutes, said that she had changed the Reg [I saw not indication of this while following her work on screen] and told me now all was well. NOT!
I also welcome instructions to fix this issue.
Gloria
I am having the same issue, it’s frustrating having the computer dinging constantly asking you to fix the problem !!!!
Marty
It is easy to ignore the Focus Assist notification or turn them off. That said I’ve followed the instructions many times for disable shared experiences and still get the notification. I’m not absolutely sure it has to do with me using my most recent phone as a phone and using previous phone(s) for other things. For example an LG takes much better pictures and so does a very old (according to carriers that is 18+ months) Alcatel. Mumbling to myself, “OK Boomer get with the program and pay +/- 1000usd every 18 months for a phone? Efffff that dam noise.” To James, go into your registry and start at the top with a search for “Shared Experiences.” I’m almost willing to bet you’ll find it in every sub hive. Then turn it off at each incidence. Be careful to look for counter intuitive settings. They are a setting that looks like off would be the position but that will hose other parts. M$not and their constant monopoly efforts got old while I was learning assembler coding in 1979. 41 years later it only came in handy while taking an update course on data bases. I used it to make the text scroll circles up a Christmas Tree.