Last Friday, Microsoft was busy pushing out updates to Windows that brought the long-awaited Recall platform as well as a new way to connect workflows between mobile devices and the desktop.
With Window Insider Preview build 22635.4515 for the Beta channel, users are welcomed to try out a continuity feature for Office that syncs the status of OneDrive files between phones and Windows 11 desktops.
In practice, the Task oriented continuity feature would allow users to start working on one of the many Office apps that includes Word, Excel, and PowerPoint on a phone or laptop and then be notified via the open document, that they resume where they left off with a nifty cross-device notification within the app if they do within 5 minutes of leaving their doc opened from the device it originated on.
Upon clicking on this notification, the same file that you were viewing or editing previously on your phone will open in your default browser on your PC.
Here are some important details about how this feature works:
- This feature works only when signing into OneDrive with a Microsoft account. Work and school accounts are not supported. And you need to be using the same Microsoft account signing into OneDrive on your phone and signing into your Windows 11 PC.
- This feature supports Word docs, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, OneNote notebooks/pages, and PDFs.
- The OneDrive file must be opened on your phone when your PC is locked. If you then unlock your PC within 5 minutes of accessing the file on your phone, you will receive the resume notification as noted above.
- For the best experience using this feature, you should be logged into OneDrive in your default browser on your PC.
- Your PC should be on Build 22635.4515 and higher in the Beta Channel.
This feature can be managed and turned off via Settings > Apps > Resume.
FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Devices and Drivers -> Linked Phone.
Microsoft also announced passwordless improvements via new thrid party provider API support.
We are releasing updates to WebAuthn APIs to support a plugin authentication model for passkeys. In the coming months, Windows customers will be able to choose a third-party provider as an additional choice alongside the native Windows passkey provider while maintaining the Windows Hello user experience. Messages in WebAuthn flows will be forwarded to the plugin and responses are returned to the WebAuthn client applications. This enables plugins to create and authenticate with passkeys when requested by the customer. This model allows plugins to use Windows Hello as a user verification mechanism to enable a seamless passkey experience. You will notice additional user experience updates to the passkey flows and Settings alongside the new capabilities.
There you have it, if you’re on the Dev Insider preview channel, and happen to own a Snapdraon powered Copilot + PC, you can test out Recall, and if you’re on regular old non-Copilot + PC in the Beta Insider Preview, you can try out Office continutity starting today.
