Ryan Haines / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Microsoft recently showed off a demo for a feature called “Cross Device Resume.”
- This feature allows you to continue where you left off in an app when you want to switch from your phone to your PC.
- Spotify and WhatsApp appear to support this feature.
As you may know, Apple has a handy app continuation feature called “Handoff.” It allows you to start a task on one device and continue where you left off if you switch to a different device. Microsoft has been working on a similar feature for Windows 11 and Android devices, which it recently showed off in a demo.
According to Windows Central, this feature is called “Cross Device Resume” and a demo for it appeared in a Build 2025 session labeled “Create Seamless Cross-Device Experiences with Windows for your app.” However, the session has since been edited to remove this demo from the video. Fortunately, X (formerly Twitter) user phantomofearth took a screenshot of the feature before the video was changed.
Before it was deleted, this demo showed a user taking advantage of Cross Device Resume to continue using Spotify on a PC. If you’re Android phone has the Spotify app open, the app will also appear in the taskbar on your computer. A phone icon will be sitting on top of the app to signify that it is currently being used on your phone. By hovering over this icon, you’ll see the option to “Continue where you left,” followed by an arrow. If you choose to switch over to Windows, you’ll be taken to the same exact spot in the app that you were on while on your phone.
This continuous experience appears to work for media as well. If you’re listening to a song on Spotify and you use Cross Device Resume, the music will pick up from the point in the song when you used the feature.
In addition to Spotify, it looks like WhatsApp will also support Cross Device Resume. It’s unclear if there are any other apps that currently support the experience, but Microsoft is leaving the door open for third-party developers to add it to their apps.
