Nextbit, a relatively small startup that is founded by some former executives who previously worked in the Android division at Google, today announced its first product — the Nextbit Baton.
Nextbit Baton is a low-level system framework that offers three benefits to users — Sync, Pass, and Backup & Restore. As its name suggests, Sync allows users to keep their app data in sync across multiple Android devices while Pass is similar to Apple’s Continuity feature and allows users to “shoot” any open app from one Android device to another easily.
“Whether I’m reading an article, playing a game, or buying something online, everything comes to a halt if I want to switch devices.” said Tom Moss, Nextbit CEO. “Until now, there hasn’t been a good way to pick up a tablet at the same place you left off on your smartphone. Our mobile activities shouldn’t just be available on a per device basis. That’s why Nextbit is building a future that focuses on the experiences, not the device.”
As for Backup & Restore, it can be used by Nextbit Baton users to backup their app and app data to the cloud so that they can easily restore it to another device.
Nextbit Baton is still in private beta for now and will only work on Android devices running CyanogenMod. The final public release of Baton will also only be available for Cyanogen’s public ROM.
“Cyanogen continues to reimagine Android by introducing bold new firsts,” said Kirt McMaster, CEO of Cyanogen. “Nextbit represents one of these platform firsts that could only manifest on a truly open Android. We enable Baton to become a native OS level feature, creating huge benefit for our users.”
If you have a Nexus 5, Nexus 7 and/or a OnePlus One, you can sign up for the private beta of Nextbit Baton here.