Great news for Windows 10 and Android users! Thanks to Samsung-Microsoft partnership, Your Phone app is becoming more and more functional and user-friendly as we speak!
Still using emulators to access data from your smartphone from you PC? You can forget about it, but only if you own a Samsung.
Microsoft is currently developing what its officials call “a seamless connection between PC and phone”. Basically, you can access a list of app that you have on your smartphone. The app that you choose to open will run in a separate window outside You Phone app.
You will be able to pin these apps to the taskbar or Start menu. This means that you no longer have to deal with your smartphone’s mirror, the Android apps from your phone are just like any other regular app in your PC. Later this year users will embrace a new feature – they will be able to run several apps simultaneously. No need to waste your time and open-close apps now.
According to a post in the Windows blog, Galaxy Note20 will pioneer this process with other models to follow.
So, Galaxy Note20 users will be able not only to answer calls and messages, but also to interact with apps. However, not all apps are compatible. Some might display a black screen but this refers mostly to games.
These are the key features of the new Your Phone app:
- Your Phone app will show a list of your apps
- Any app can be launched from your PC
- Pin your apps for a quicker access
- Unread notifications display
The only requirements are a PC running the Windows 10 October 2018 update or later and an Android smartphone running Android 9 Pie or later with Link to Windows integration. The 20+ list of devices supporting this function consists literally of Samsungs only and includes, for example, Samsung Galaxy Note 9 Samsung Galaxy S9, Samsung Galaxy Note10, Samsung Galaxy S10 and others.
No updates yet on whether and when this feature will be available for other android phones. But we will keep our fingers crossed.