Microsoft is slowly bolstering the Your Phone app, which gives Android users various benefits on their Windows 10 PC, with the latest perk being the ability to see your phone’s notifications displayed on the desktop.
As you may be aware, the idea of Your Phone is to tie your smartphone and computer closer together. The application currently allows users to access the most recent photos from their Android gallery (and do other photo-related stuff) on their PC, and read and reply to text messages (using the computer’s keyboard, of course, which is far more convenient for most than a touchscreen).
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The next step is to sync notifications from the phone to the user’s PC, a feature that was promised back when Your Phone was first launched (in August 2018). As the notifications are synced, dismissing one on either your phone or computer will mean it disappears across all devices.
Note that at the moment this is only available to testers, and only certain Windows Insiders (those testing preview versions of Windows 10) at that, with the feature progressing in a staged rollout, as detailed in this tweet from the director of program management for Microsoft Mobile Experiences.
#WindowsInsiders using the #YourPhone app, we got even more for you! We have just begin a staged roll-out of syncing notifications from your phone to PC! pic.twitter.com/MZYT1rcIp3April 25, 2019
Hopefully it won’t be too long before we see this capability actually going live and being available in the release version of the app.
Mirror, mirror…
While Your Phone is still rather thin on the ground in terms of functionality, this is a major introduction. What’s more, Microsoft is further planning to bring screen mirroring to the app, so you’ll be able to mirror your phone screen to your computer monitor – a feature that's also currently in testing).
Eventually, Your Phone could be a big boon to Android users (the vast majority of smartphone owners) who run Windows 10.
To use Your Phone, you need to be running Windows 10 version 17134 or newer, and Android 7.0 or better. It’s worth noting again, though, that you won’t get notifications or screen mirroring until they progress from testing.
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Via Neowin
