View iOS, Android Content on Windows 10 PCs With 'Your Phone'

SEATTLE—For the second twelvemonth running, Microsoft is ramping upwardly tie-ins between iOS and Android mobile devices and Windows 10.

At its annual Build developer conference hither, the software behemothic'southward corporate vice president for Windows, Joe Belfiore, announced that a key feature in the latest Windows x April 2022 Update, the Timeline, volition interact with smartphones running Android and iOS.

But an even more dramatic development will exist the ability to actually see content that lives in your phone correct on a desktop window on the PC.

This "Your Phone" experience, according to Belfiore, will let you practise things like view and elevate photos from the phone window on the figurer to another folder, and to view text messages and notifications. Microsoft presented the characteristic as part of its new Microsoft 365 offering, which combines Role, Windows, and other services for businesses, enterprises, and educational institutions.

Access to Timeline—which lets you "get back in time" to past activities—on phones will happen in the Edge browser app on iOS and Android, besides as on the Microsoft Launcher for Android. The latter will get the ability to run line-of-business apps via Microsoft Intune. The Edge app on both platforms already lets you continue browsing from the smartphone to the PC.

The Your Phone feature, as with many of these types of integration, is likely to exist deeper on Android than iOS, not only because of the Launcher capability, but considering Apple keeps tighter reins on its mobile ecosystem. The power to hands motion between smartphone and PC is a welcome evolution from Microsoft, in any case, since the Windows operating system however powers the overwhelming majority of desktops—over 88 percent, co-ordinate to the latest NetMarketShare numbers.

Most Michael Muchmore

Michael Muchmore

Michael Muchmore is PCMag's pb analyst for software and web applications, with an emphasis on photo editing, video editing, and Windows. A native New Yorker, he has at various times headed upwardly coverage of web development, enterprise software (including databases and application servers), and display technologies (monitors and TVs). Michael cowrote ane of the start overviews of web services for a general audience. Before that he worked on PC Mag'due south Solutions department, which educated readers about programming techniques like C+ and Visual Basic, every bit well as offer tips on using office productivity software. He previously covered services and software for ExtremeTech.com.