Microsoft won't deliver Timeline as part of Windows 10 Fall Creators Update
As Microsoft gets closer to finalizing its Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, the Windows development team is deciding which features will and won't make the cut.
On July 3, one of the leaders of the Windows team tweeted that one of the expected Fall Creators Update features, known as Timeline, will not be included in the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update when it begins rolling out around September 2017.
The Timeline feature, which is the desktop PC version of the broader feature set that Microsoft officials have dubbed "Pick Up Where You Left Off," was one of the new Fall Creators Update features Microsoft highlighted at its Build 2017 developers conference earlier this year.
Microsoft's new plan, according to Joe Belfiore -- who, I believe, is officially head of the Windows Engagement Team -- is to include Timeline in "early insider builds shortly after FCU (Fall Creators Update) is out." Belfiore tweeted about the new timing for Timeline in response to a comment from The Verge's Tom Warren.
Microsoft execs described Timeline as an extension of Windows 10's current Task View. It will show users activities they've done in the past, and will provide users with cards that will allow them to more quickly and easily reengage with applications.
Microsoft's broader plan is to allow activities created on one device to be moved to other Windows and non-Windows devices using Cortana and the cloud using the broader Pick Up Where You Left Off technology that comes from Microsoft's "Project Rome" work.
Under the covers, Timeline and Pick Up Where You Left off use the Microsoft Graph and Activity Graph to provide users with these new experiences.
The Windows 10 feature update that is slated to follow the Windows 10 Creators Update will arrive in the Spring of 2018, according to Microsoft, most likely around March.
Update: As Windows Insider @itsmichaelwest tweeted, Timeline/Pick Up Where You Left Off are not the only expected Fall Creators Update features that aren't yet testable.
The Windows 10 Cloud Clipboard shown at Build 2017 isn't there yet, nor is the Capture 3D app that Microsoft showed off in October 2016 and which was expected to be in the original Creators Update release. New Continuum features for Windows Phones, described by Microsoft officials last year and which some expected to be part of the Creators Update, also have yet to materialize.