- Windows 11 has a CV feature in test buildings
- For now it is just for Spotify but more developers will get on board in time
- If you are listening to a track on your Android phone, you can resume it playback on your Windows 11 PC Seamless
Windows 11 gets a new ability where the desktop operating system allows you to resume what you previously did in an app on your Android phone.
This is only available in testing for now – in Windows 11 -Print -Builds in the DEV and Beta channels – and although it eventually comes to a number of apps, it only works with Spotify.
As Microsoft explains in a blog post, the way the feature works is as follows: say you are listening to a playlist or podcast on Spotify on your smartphone and you stop it, and then drive to your desktop PC.
When you fire up Windows 11, you see a ‘CV alarm’ emerges from your taskbar at the bottom of the screen and tell you that you can continue your Spotify listening to the PC. Just click on that alarm and the Spotify app opens, continued playback exactly where you relax on your Android smartphone.
Microsoft reminds us that we will need to have the Spotify app installed on the PC and be logged into the same account as the one running on the smartphone as you would expect. If you don’t have Spotify installed in Windows 11, a button to install the Microsoft Store software will appear – just sign in to your Spotify account.
You must also have the link to the Windows app running on your smartphone and have access to your mobile enabled on your Windows 11 -PC, as per. Microsoft’s instructions in his blog post.
Analysis: A good addition – but Microsoft has really taken its time
This is essentially Microsoft’s acquisition of Apple’s Handoff feature, and it seems to be a streamlined and useful ability that I am eager to see my debut on Windows 11. Its revelation is no surprise, but as Microsoft accidentally gave us a glimpse of the functionality of a pre-played building session earlier this year when the video was quickly edited to remove this. It worked pretty much exactly the same thing we see in the test now (with Spotify, also used in this early demo).
The technical name of this trick is Cross Device CV, and hopefully a number of software developers will come on board to bring support to this – those who have apps available on both Windows 11 and Android, of course. Microsoft will undoubtedly promote some of the bigger names out there, and besides Spotify we have also heard that WhatsApp may be in line for this treatment.
Obviously, the CV function will also try to push installations from the Microsoft store, which will not hurt the traffic there -something that the company has worked on improving late.
While resuming Android apps on Windows 11 is clearly a great feature and it’s good to look in -depth, the most important question here is why has it taken so long for Microsoft to implement this?
