What in the world is this

[Dlass]

I have my new MB Air (Sonoma) sitting next to my iMac (Sonoma). When I open certain applications on both, I get a funny thing in my dock. A second icon appears. In the case of Messages, it looks like this. A second Messages icon, with a little box at upper right.

What in the world is that second icon? Why do I need it, and how can I prevent it from popping up and messing up my dock?

Same thing happens with browsers, where I open Chrome on one machine, and a Firefox (my default browser) icon appears on the other, with a little box at upper right.

Why should what I do on one machine have anything to do with what happens on my other machine? This makes no sense.

 

[Rodananne]

I believe what you are seeing is Hand-off. This is a function which allows you to start a process on one device, say on your iPad then continue on your computer. Say I start replying to you on my iPhone, I can open my MBP, click on the corresponding browser icon in the dock with the little iPhone symbol and it will open my browser on the same page. You can turn this off in settings.

 

[Dlass]

Thanks. Settings->General->AirDrop & Handoff allows one to turn off Handoff. I did that, and so far it seems to have cured the problem. Thank you! Guess it defaults on.

 

[Rodananne]

Personally I find it a very handy feature, when it works which is not always.