At its fall event, Microsoft not only launched new Surface computers, but also announced the availability of the Windows 10 October 2018 Update. What was the top new capability in that release? The Your Phone app, which allows for easy sharing between a smartphone and your PC.
Drag and drop photos from a phone via a window on the PC. Or send web pages from a phone to the PC, where they can open immediately or reside in the Action Center for later use. You can also see your PC's Timeline on the phone, though that feature is still labeled as beta—as is the coolest feature of all, Screen Mirroring, which displays and lets you interact with your smartphone's screen on a PC.
If you have an Android phone, though, you can now get notifications from phone apps in the Your Phone app on the PC, Microsoft announced this week.
Microsoft would love to get the same functionality on iPhones, but Apple closely guards its ecosystem. Android is a lot more customizable than iOS, even letting you drop in a different Launcher home screen for your phone. With Your Phone, Microsoft takes advantage of this openness to deliver some impressive linkage between the worlds of mobile and desktop.
Read on to find out how to get going with the Your Phone app to transfer photos and send text messages on your PC. The Windows 10 update is rolling out gradually, but here's how to get it now.
Open the Your Phone App and Sign In
Install the Your Phone Companion App
Sign In on the Phone
Turn On Photos and Messages
Photos From Phone to PC Instantly
Messages on the PC
You've already enabled Message sharing in Settings, so now just click over to the Messages tab in the Your Phone app on your PC. You'll see that this feature is considered beta. Once again, you have the app send a notification to the phone to allow texting permission. After the phone has acknowledged your permission, the Your Phone app on the PC shows your text conversations.
Testing this showed me why the feature is in beta. When I engaged in texting with an iPhone, I only saw messages sent from the Android and the PC, not from the iPhone. When texting another Android, the messages worked on all three devices, but there was a longer delay than you associate with texting.
The other problem is that Your Phone's texting doesn't interact with the PC's contact list, the People app. But that's not a huge problem if you manage all your contacts on your phone. It would just be nice to be able to start a text from the People app. You can type a number in Your Phone to start a text, but only contacts on the Android will be found by name.
Windows 10 Timeline on Your Android
The Windows 10 Timeline, launched in the April 2018 Update, takes over the Task View to show not only multiple desktops, but also tiles showing your browsing and recently used apps. I’ve found it quite useful to locate a web page or document I viewed in the previous few days.
Currently in beta on Android, the Microsoft Launcher can show this timeline from your PC on your phone. You can opt into the preview version at the bottom of the Launcher's page on the Google Play store. After a brief delay, you're enrolled, and then you must update to the beta version of the app.
Swipe to the left on the home screen and you see a new Timeline tab alongside News and Glance. This worked for me without a glitch on the Asus Zenphone, letting me open Word documents and go to web pages I'd been to on my PC. But I only saw entries from Edge and Office—other PC app activity doesn't show up, even for UWP apps like Microsoft Photos.
Notifications
What's Next: App Mirroring
