new (?) icon on lock screen

[DaveWT]

Tonight's question. Today I noticed a new icon in the lower left corner of the lock screen on my iPhone SE. (iOS 10)



It appears to be the icon for a solitaire game I have been playing although about a third of it seems ghosted. I don't recall this (or any other such icon being left there before.

Wondering if I powered the iPhone completely off and then back on that would help I tried this. Now there is an icon at the bottom left that appears to be the Photos icon.

Is this normal behaviour, and if so what is the significance of putting this icon there. What is it signifying?

 

[chas_m]

This is part of a feature called Handoff that first appeared in Yosemite. It shows the last app you had open (and still have open) on your Mac, and if you tap that icon the iOS version will open at the same place you left the Mac version, so you can pick up right where you left off.

The same thing happens in reverse, too: if you are using your Mac and then pick up your iPhone to, say, reply to an incoming email, a small icon will appear in the far left corner of your Mac Dock to show the icon of the program you are using on the iOS device so you can click that and be taken to the exact same spot, right down to the character in the Mac version of the app. It's pretty neat.

You can turn this ability off if you wish, but as someone who frequently jumps from device to device, I have found it useful. It works only on apps that have both a Mac version and iOS version installed on the respective devices.

Further reading: https://support.apple.com/kb/PH18754?locale=en_US

 

[DaveWT]

Thanks for your thoughts on this Chas and since I posted the question I have done a lot of reading on this.

As to Handoff, I have Handoff disabled in the iPhone's settings since my mid-2011 iMac does not have a new enough version of Bluetooth to support it. As well, the game icon that first appeared on my iPhone lock screen does not match anything I have on the iMac.

I read about two other conditions that can put up this icon also, but neither applied in my case.

The next morning (after I had posted my question) the icon(s) disappeared and I have not noticed them reappearing.

 

[chas_m]

Sorry for the late reply to this, but I did figure out what was going on after some puzzling.

I believe what you saw there was a lock-screen notification that the solitaire app was being updated (apps that have "automatic download" for updates turned on will do that). This would explain why a third of it was "ghosted," as it was still updating at the time. This also explains why you haven't seen it since.

Cheers
Chas

 

[DaveWT]

Wow, I didn't expect to see more on this topic now. Thanks for the additional info.

I will keep an eye out for such appearances in the future as I may just happen to look at the lock screen as other apps are updating.