5 things Microsoft should do to further integrate Windows 10 and Android

Microsoft has worked hard to bring its software experience to Android phones, reaching a point where Android is now very much the mobile platform for Windows users. That connection is only growing stronger with the announcement of the new "Your Phone" features, but at that place are still some means that Microsoft could meliorate bridge Windows 10 PCs and Android phones.

Phones have evolved to the point that many people rarely employ them to make telephone calls. That beingness said, it'due south a bit funny that the upcoming Your Phone app doesn't relay phone calls. The SMS syncing is a great feature, and it volition do a proficient chore connecting your phone and PC in other ways. Only its natural progression would be to relay telephone calls to your PC. This opens up the door for using higher quality microphones and input methods during calls and would also let you utilise whatsoever recording software that you already take on your PC.

Microsoft is looking into bringing phone call support to Your Phone, but there are factors that make it more than hard than it may seem. For case, Dell Mobile Connect can relay phonecalls but requires relatively new hardware.

Brand Proceed on PC work both ways

Continue on PC is a nifty feature that Microsoft is progressively working into more applications. It'southward already congenital into Edge on Android and iOS and Microsoft Launcher. The downside is that you can only send websites and content in ane direction. While I oftentimes read things on my phone while commuting that I want to open up on another device, it'due south just as mutual that I come across something on my PC and want to continue it on my phone.

Admittedly, Microsoft might have to rename the characteristic if you could keep something on your telephone, but that's trivial compared to expanding cross-platform functionality.

Release a universal clipboard

I'yard cheating a bit on this one because the latest Insider builds of Windows 10 accept "Clipboard", which is a cloud-enabled clipboard. But this has been a feature that Windows users have wanted for years, and it'due south going to practice wonders when it comes to working across devices. Not simply will Clipboard make it easier to copy things over immediately, it will likewise allow you recollect things you've previously copied, at to the lowest degree based on what we've seen of information technology.

Mirror phone screens on PCs

While syncing messages and sending content back and along between your phone and PC is nice, sometimes it'due south just easier to take a mirror of your phone announced on your PC. There are third-party apps that exercise this and some OEMs similar Dell, Samsung, and HP have their ways of delivering this characteristic. But Microsoft releasing its version woiuld nonetheless be worth information technology. Current solutions frequently rely on turning on programmer options or require specific hardware to mirror your phone to your PC.

If Microsoft could work this feature into Your Telephone, you could have your telephone in a window that you could hands minimize or bring upwards, and and then you could interact with apps, messages, and other parts of your phone using your PC's peripherals.

Bring Photos to Android

Microsoft recently released the Photos Companion app for Android. Information technology allows you to send your photos from your telephone to your PC instantly over a local wireless network. Since testing that app, it'due south been a part of my regular workflow. But while it has a role to make full, information technology doesn't fix the fact that Microsoft hasn't released a version of Photos for Android. Currently, y'all tin can accept photos on your Android phone and have them automatically back up to your OneDrive. This allows your photos to sync across the deject to be viewed through the Photos app on Windows 10. Merely you lot take to utilize a completely carve up app to view these photos on your Android telephone.

In that location's a plethora of photograph viewing and file managing apps on Android, but not all of them are smashing. A solid app for viewing photos, Google's Photos app, relies on a unlike deject service, so you still have to install OneDrive, turn on automatic syncing on OneDrive, and then unless you plan to double support photographs, turn off automatic syncing on Google Photos.

Bringing the Photos app to Android would not only bring a unified visual experience of viewing media files just also brand cross-device syncing and viewing closer to being seamless.

Summing things up

I'thou extremely impressed with how much Microsoft has washed to bring Android phones together with Windows 10. Many of the features that I've discussed here are either in the works or at least on the radar of Microsoft, so the hereafter for connecting these devices is bright. What means would you like to run into Microsoft strengthen this connection? Permit us know in the comments.

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