Microsoft is making a huge leap towards creating your online experience more integrated, and it begins with a new feature known as Cross-Device Resume. Created for Windows 11, it works to effortlessly connect your Android phone to your PC, so resuming where you left off is merely a matter of a single click.
Cross-Device Resume is Microsoft’s response to Apple’s Handoff, but is designed for the Android world that runs most of the world’s smartphones. The idea is elegant but potent: you’re listening to Spotify or chatting on WhatsApp on your phone, and when you move to your Windows 11 desktop, you get a small badge on that app’s icon in the taskbar. Click it, and you’re right back where you were going—no hunting, re-opening, or redoing any steps.
Microsoft made this feature official at its Build 2025 developer conference. In a quick demo—now pulled from official sources—Senior Product Manager Aakash Varshney demonstrated how a paused Spotify song on an Android phone would prompt a resume request on a Windows PC. Long-pressing the Spotify icon in the taskbar showed a notice: “Resume. Recently opened on your mobile device,” and a single-click option to resume playing. “There is no need to search or start again,” Varshney explained. “It’s an uninterrupted one-click flow that preserves the music and user experience.”
In the background, the technology extends Microsoft’s current Phone Link app, which currently permits users to access texts, calls, and notifications from their PC. Cross Device Resume adds a second tier of functionality by bringing app usage between devices up to speed using a companion Android app named Cross Device Services. When enabled, this configuration enables Windows 11 to bring app recommendations into view in the Start menu or taskbar based on recent activity from your phone.
First, the feature will launch with support for a small set of applications, such as Spotify and WhatsApp. As reported by Windows Central, Cross Device Resume will initially roll out via OneDrive integration, with more taskbar functionality coming later. Microsoft has not officially announced a full list of supported apps yet, but additional developers will likely be incentivized to join in as the feature matures.
This is not Microsoft’s first foray into marrying mobile and desktop. A previous effort, Project Rome, was supposed to bring cross-device experiences to Windows 10 but never caught on. With Android now controlling most of the world’s mobile market, Microsoft is banking that this new, more simplified strategy will catch on better. As Club386 observed, “For Android users, it’s the kind of glue that binds workflows together.”
Nevertheless, challenges lie ahead. Even Apple’s popular Handoff feature is limited, especially when it comes to third-party apps. Cross-Device Resume will need the approval of developers to reach its full potential. And since it hasn’t yet been included in the Windows Insider testing program, it will probably take some time before it becomes widely available.
Despite this, the direction is clear. Microsoft is looking to have your devices, whichever platform, work more harmoniously together. With features such as Cross Device Resume, the company is pushing toward a future where your phone and PC don’t merely coexist—they work together.
For anyone who has ever hoped that their Android phone and Windows PC could talk to each other more smoothly, this is something to watch.
