Microsoft has today announced at Build 2018 a brand new feature coming soon to Windows 10 called "Your Phone" that's designed to help further tie your Android or iOS smartphone to your PC. Unlike current implementations of phone integration, Your Phone is a window into your smartphone, right from your PC for instant access to text messages, photos, and notifications.
With Your Phone, users will be able to read and send text messages, drag and drop photos from your phone and place them into documents that you're working on at your PC, and see your phones entire list of notifications. The idea here is to make it so you don't need to keep switching back and forth between your PC and your smartphone when working on an essay or doing research. You can see everything you need to see on your smartphone right through Your Phone.
From Microsoft:
This week we're introducing a set of features and updates across a variety of devices and platforms and a better blending between web and application environments for end users and developers. Last year at Build, you heard us talk about our commitment to meeting our customers where they are – across platforms. We're expanding this work to not only bring more Microsoft 365 services across platforms and into applications, but to better connect customers' existing PC experiences with their phones, helping to increase engagement for developers.A new 'Your Phone' experience that enables a window into a user's phone right from their PC for instant access to text messages, photos and notifications. Imagine being able to quickly drag and drop your phone's photos into a document on your PC in one swift movement – without having to take your phone out of your pocket. 'Your Phone' will begin to roll out in the Windows Insider Program soon.
Microsoft says Your Phone will be coming to Insiders for testing very soon. The latest Insider build already has the Your Phone app preinstalled, but it doesn't appear to do anything new just yet. Microsoft has not committed to a release window for Your Phone, so it might or might not show up in Redstone 5 for the public later this year.
Further integrating Android and iOS into Windows 10 is all part of Microsoft's effort of bringing Windows 10 integrations to where people already are. Since Windows Phone failed, Microsoft is now committed to bringing the best of Windows 10 to Android and iOS users, as well as making Android and iOS work better with Windows 10. In light of this, Microsoft has also today announced upcoming integrations with Timeline on iOS and Android, which you can read about here.
