This morning as I sat down to check the news, I saw a strange post in my X feed. At first glance, it looked like an interesting Microsoft Edge feature that was in testing. But I quickly realized that the post was from 2023. I’m not sure why X showed me that post within my “Following” feed that’s sorted chronologically. I thought there was a chance that a more recent post within a thread may have pushed the original content up, but that does not seem to be the case.
Regardless of why I saw the feature in action, the option intrigued me. First shipped in February 2024, “Mobile upload” allows you to upload images from your phone and use those pictures on your desktop. The feature lets you bring photos you took on your phone or other images you’ve saved to your PC without having to send them to yourself or wait for OneDrive to back up your files. Leo Varela first spotted the feature and shared screenshots of it in action while it was in testing in 2023.
This option to “upload from mobile” SEEMS to be new 🤔, it is available in Edge Dev and Canary: pic.twitter.com/e5y7FG123RNovember 19, 2023
Microsoft has several ways to connect mobile phones and PCs, including a separate Edge feature called “Drop.” The Mobile upload feature saves you a few steps if you need to take an image from your phone and use it on the web on a PC. While it’s not difficult to send files to yourself, it can be a bit awkward as you wait for a notification about a message from yourself.
When trying the feature out, I noticed that I had to make sure my smartphone and PC were on the same wireless network. I also had to scan a QR code each time I wanted to send an image from my phone to my PC’s browser.
When using the new tool, you can choose to have OneDrive back up files by default or not have files backed up.
Microsoft has an FAQ page about Mobile upload. That page notes that you can send up to 10 images at a time with a limit of 1 Gigabyte per file.
In its current iteration, Mobile upload does not seem that much more convenient than using Drop, sending a file to yourself, or syncing photos across devices with Phone Link. The fact that I have to scan a QR code from my phone each time I want to upload an image to my PC is too fiddly to integrate the feature into my workflow. Still, the feature is intriguing and I’m glad X showed it in my feed for whatever reason.
