With phones and computers taking up a huge amount of our lives, it's only natural for people to want to transfer files between the two. And while there are plenty of third-party apps and services you can use to get the job done, Microsoft has been working on its own solutions. Now, as spotted in the latest Windows 11 Beta branch, you can quickly send any files or photos from your PC to your Android device with little hassle.

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A new My Phone shortcut appears in Windows Share

As announced on Windows Blogs, a new patch has arrived on the Beta branch. For the time being, this feature is only available to Insiders who have subscribed to the Beta branch, but it's also the final step before the new features are added to the main release branch for everyone to enjoy. As such, the Beta branch is a good way to see which features are coming soon to the operating system; if a feature has made it all the way here, it will likely be released.

The My Phone share icon
Image Credit: Microsoft

For this Beta branch, Windows 11 gets a new "My Phone" search icon in Windows Share. To get started with it, you'll need to use Link to Windows to tie both your computer and your Android phone together. Once done, the icon will appear in the quick search feature on Windows 11. Just click the icon and Windows will automatically send whatever you're sharing over to your Android phone.

Besides this feature, the new Beta build adds jump lists to compatible apps when you right-click on their pinned shortcut in the Start menu. The update also gives you more control over images served to you by Windows Spotlight, such as expanding them in full-screen view or like/disliking them. And if you're not keen to download an Insider build for these features, you shouldn't need to wait long until they're released for everyone.