Microsoft quietly demoed a macOS-inspired feature, then tried to pretend it didn’t

A few days ago, Microsoft launched a new Cross Device Resume feature with Windows 11 build 26100.4188 in the Release Preview Channel, suggesting that the software giant is currently working on the feature. However, in its official changelog, the company clearly mentioned that it's meant to allow users 'resume working on OneDrive files from your phone (iOS and Android) on your Windows 11 PC with a single click.'

While this sounds a lot like one of macOS' most popular cross-device features, called Handoff, the company's announcement left us wondering if it'll be limited to OneDrive only. Thankfully, we now have more clarity about what the Cross Device Resume capability is, as Microsoft recently demoed the new feature with Spotify in a Build session, only to delete that portion of the video later.

Windows 11's Cross Device Resume is Microsoft's take on macOS' Handoff

One possible reason Microsoft deleted that demo could be that it wants to save the surprise for one of the upcoming Windows Insider builds. However, whatever the reason might be, we don't have to wait that long, as Windows Central managed to capture that deleted portion of the video, showing us how the feature works.

Based on what we saw in the demo video, the Spotify icon in Windows 11 taskbar features a tiny phone icon, which probably indicates that the app is also currently open on a phone. Hovering over the icon reveals that the app was recently opened on your phone and shows the option to let you resume where you left off right on your Windows 11 PC.

While it may not be that useful in the case of Spotify, since it lets you use one device to control music playback on another device, provided that both are using the same Spotify account, this can be useful for apps that don't independently offer any sort of cross-device support. For example, you can draft a WhatsApp message on your phone and then make modifications, and then send it from your Windows 11 PC.

WhatsApp is an interesting example because evidence suggests that it might be one of the first few apps to have support for Windows 11's Cross Device Resume feature. Not just WhatsApp and other big players like Spotify, but Microsoft will let all the third-party app developers implement it in their apps. However, only time will tell how many developers show interest and ultimately introduce this capability to their apps.