unexpected item in Google Chrome's right-click shortcut-menu

Question

I need your help figuring-out what's going on here:

Note: the platforms I'm using are: 

 - PC: Google Chrome on Windows 10
 - Phone: Android version: 7.1.1 NMF26F (skin: Xiaomi MiUI version: 11.0.2.0 NDDMIXM)

I have this strange "Send to Xiaomi Phone" item in the shortcut-menu when I right-click on a page in Google Chrome Browser (on my Windows 10 PC):

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If I actually click on that item, I see this "Sending..." message in the address bar like so:

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However, nothing ever seems to reach my phone (I don't get any message or notification on my Xiaomi phone).

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I'm also not sure how Chrome knows that I have a Xiaomi phone. Although here are some possible clues:

1. I use Roamit to share the clipboard between my PC and my phone.
2. In the past I installed Microsoft's Your Phone app from the Microsoft Store on my PC and Your Phone Companion app from the Google Play Store on my Xiaomi Android phone because Microsoft claimed it would let me sync my phone with my PC. However, that turned out to be hype. The app was useless (to me) and I removed it from my phone (I am unable to remove the app from my PC because in "Add or remove programs" the uninstall button for this app is greyed out for some reason unknown to me).

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For the life of me I can't figure-out what App or Chrome Extension this "Send to Xiaomi Phone" item might be related to.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

For the life of me I can't figure-out what App or Chrome Extension this "Send to Xiaomi Phone" item might be related to.

None, it's a built-in Chrome feature. I think it started showing up for some users around version 87 or so – now it seems to be enabled for everyone.

Each device connected to Chrome Sync can exchange data with all other devices connected to Chrome Sync, this works very similarly to Chrome's "Tabs from other devices", only in the opposite direction (push vs pull). It works in both directions – the phone can send tabs to the PC as well.

You can inspect all synchronized information under chrome://sync-internals/ in the 'Sync Node Browser' tab. All pages that you've "sent" recently can be found in the 'Send Tab To Self' folder; all active devices are in the 'Device Info' folder.

I don't think there is any way to immediately remove a device¹, but they do automatically expire within a few weeks if inactive, and they disappear from the "Send To" context-menu even quicker. So if you disable Sync in Google Chrome on your phone, it'll eventually vanish from the PC too.

¹ (It is only possible to delete items from "Sessions" using the "Hide for now" option at chrome://history/syncedTabs.)

However, nothing ever seems to reach my phone (I don't get any message or notification on my Xiaomi phone).

Make sure the Chrome browser is installed (not Mi Browser, but specifically Google Chrome), and that it is allowed to run in background and display notifications. (If I remember, some brands such as Xiaomi modify their Android distributions to be extremely aggressive about saving battery power by killing any and all background apps.)