14 DAY TRIAL // We’ve known for a while that Microsoft was planning to pull support for syncing activities through the built-in Windows 10 Timeline feature, but now it looks like the feature is going away much sooner than originally expected.
More specifically, the official announcement landed in April when Microsoft decided to drop sync support in Windows Timeline for Windows 10 preview users.
“If you have your activity history synced across your devices through your Microsoft account (MSA), you will no longer have the option to upload new activity in Timeline. AAD-connected accounts won’t be impacted,” the company said at that point.
Now it looks like Microsoft is in a big rush to drop the feature for everyone running Windows 10, as WL has spotted an update to the original support document which indicates that the company is removing the support for uploading activities to Timeline as soon as this upcoming July.
Just a server-side switch and it’s off
In other words, starting this summer, you would no longer be able to sync Timeline across devices, and this is believed to be just the first step towards ditching this feature completely.
“Starting in July 2021, if you have your activity history synced across your devices through your Microsoft account (MSA), you’ll no longer have the option to upload new activity in Timeline. You’ll still be able to use Timeline and see your activity history (information about recent apps, websites and files) on your local device. AAD-connected accounts won’t be impacted,” Microsoft now explains.
So as it turns out, Microsoft doesn’t want to wait for the launch of a new Windows 10 feature update for the whole thing, as Timeline sync support would be dropped with just a server switch in July. For now, Microsoft hasn’t officially confirmed that Timeline would go away completely though.