ByWindows 11 could soon take multitasking to the next level by letting you resume your phone’s activity on your PC.
For instance, if you were listening to a song on Spotify on your Android phone, you could soon resume it on your PC from the same timestamp. Likewise, you could continue writing WhatsApp messages on your PC right where you left off on your phone.
This is a new idea? Not really. Apple devices have an interesting feature called “Handoff”, which allows you to start on one device like an iPhone, then switch to a MacBook or another device and pick up where you left off.
Microsoft is redefining the same experience on Windows 11 with Resume, which allows you to pick up where you left off. Microsoft has already confirmed that it’s working on the Resume feature, and we’ve shown off its full potential in our review. But the catch is that Resume is restricted to OneDrive.
At the moment, OneDrive-based Resume, which is much like Apple Handoff, allows you to use a phone signed into the same Microsoft account to open or edit a file in OneDrive. Once you’ve finished editing it on your phone or locked your phone amid your work, you can resume it on your PC.
This happens when you unlock your Windows 11 PC within five minutes. As seen in the above video, a toast notification pops up that asks, “Want to pick up where you left off?” and clicking it opens the same document in your default browser.
The idea is to keep working even if you switch devices. Since Microsoft doesn’t have its mobile operating system, it’s rolling out Resume to Android phones, and in our tests, it works well.
You can resume anything hosted on OneDrive as long as it’s related to Microsoft 365. This includes Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
However, Windows Latest previously solely reported that there’s a possibility the feature could go beyond OneDrive and integrate other third-party apps.
As you can see in the above screenshot, Microsoft states that it is possible to decide which apps can use Resume (API). For now, only OneDrive is listed, and you can switch it off, but support for WhatsApp and Spotify is also in the works.
Xeno on X also confirmed that recent Windows 11 preview releases have references to two new toggles:
- Switch resume on or off for Spotify
- Turn resume on or off for WhatsApp
- How WhatsApp and Spotify can use Resume API on Windows 11
- We don’t have the details yet, but based on our experience with OneDrive-based Resume in Windows 11, let’s try to understand what a hypothetical “resume/handoff” scenario might look like for WhatsApp and Spotify.
Let’s say you open Spotify on an Android phone, start listening to a specific song, and then pause it or lock your phone. Now within the five-minute Resume API timeline, you unlock your Windows 11 PC. If Resume is toggled on, you may see a notification “Continue listening to [Song Title] on Spotify?”
This will launch the Spotify app and jump to the exact track with an accurate timestamp.
Of course, it’s also possible to use one device to control the playback of another device when you use Spotify’s official app, but Resume could make the integration smoother.
In the case of WhatsApp, when you are watching or typing a message in WhatsApp on your phone, you lock your phone. Now, when you open your PC within the five-minute timeframe, you might receive a notification: “Continue your WhatsApp chat with [Contact Name] on this PC?”
This will redirect you to WhatsApp.
Now, I’m not sure if this is how the Resume feature will work with third-party apps, but these assumptions are based on the current OneDrive integration, and I can’t think of any other way to “resume” these apps on your desktop.
What do you think about Windows 11’s new Resume idea? let us know in the comments below
