These days, most of us are more flexible than we’ve ever been in how and where we work. As our devices have gotten smarter, faster, more connected, and more portable, it’s now possible to pull out a phone, tablet, or laptop just about anywhere and take care of business.
If you do mobile work, then you should know about a fantastic new feature that Microsoft is finally bringing to Windows PCs: Handoff.
The Trouble with Mobile Work
It’s great that we can whip out any device and get started on work from anywhere. But we’ve all been in situations where we start a task on our phones (maybe something as simple as replying to an email) and then quickly realize that a mobile device isn’t going to cut it.
So what happens when you start some business task on a mobile device, only to realize you need a full keyboard or some app that’s only on your work PC?
Right now, if you’re like most mobile workers, you probably share the file, attach it to an email, open your PC, open your email, download the attachment, and resume work.
That’s not very efficient, but even worse, it creates duplicate files and versioning issues. Now you have half of a document on your phone, maybe saved to a cloud service, but then you have a newer, more complete version on your laptop, maybe saved locally or emailed on to another person at your business.
This way of working works, but it’s not efficient — and it can lead to some pretty frustrating business challenges if people are working from wrong or differing versions of a file.
Introducing Handoff: What Is It?
Handoff is a technique where work that’s happening on one device (say, a Word document or an email) can pass seamlessly to another device. So let’s say you’re swiping away composing an email, but then you decide it’d be better as a Word doc that you want to finish on your laptop. With this new feature enabled, when you get back to your PC, you’ll see a notification asking if you want to keep working on the item you started on your phone. Click “yes” and the document, email, or item will seamlessly appear on your PC — as if it had been there the whole time.
If you use Apple products at home, this might sound familiar: Apple has had a proper Handoff feature for several years now, and it really does feel nearly magical. (It’s an easier technical feat for Apple because they control all their hardware. They don’t have to account for every build of Windows, every PC brand, every mobile device type, and so on.)
Microsoft’s version looks like it will accomplish basically the same thing — only it will work across multiple device brands and categories!
How Does It Work and Why Should I Care?
Behind the scenes, Microsoft’s new handoff function is running on the power of the cloud (specifically, OneDrive and its sync capabilities). That means the file you start on one device isn’t actually on that device; it’s located in your OneDrive (which is stored on Microsoft’s servers). That’s a good thing, because it means more file stability: the version you started on your phone is literally the same version you pick up on your PC, and you can access version history within that file. No more duplicate files or confusing email threads!
A Few More Details
We don’t know for sure what Microsoft is going to call this feature, so for now we’re using “handoff” as a general term. We also don’t know exactly when this feature will hit the market. We do know it’s on the product roadmap, though.
Last: for now, this function is limited to Windows 11 PCs and Android phones, but it looks like iPhone and iOS support is coming later on.
Got questions? We’re happy to help! Reach out anytime.