HomeWinBuzzer NewsMicrosoft Shows Your Phone Android App Mirroring

Microsoft Shows Your Phone Android App Mirroring

Big things are happening with Your Phone service, with Android app mirroring becoming available in a future update.

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's Surface event saw the company introduce the Surface Pro 6, Surface Laptop 2 and Surface Studio 2. However, the company had plenty of side announcements as well (Surface Headphone anyone?). Elsewhere, Microsoft expanded on its Your Phone idea and its abilities on .

If you are unfamiliar with , it is a service that lets users mirror their Android smartphone on a PC. As interesting as the feature is, in preview it has been limited. Microsoft promised it would allow Your Phone to connect Android applications to Windows 10.

At its event yesterday, the company fulfilled its promise. Shilpa Ranganathan, GM of mobile product experience for Microsoft, highlighted the company's ambitions:

“We want you to move from your Surface, to your phone, and back to your Surface whenever you choose. That's critical.”

Mirroring Android applications will give Windows 10 users the ability to both see and interact with the apps on their PC. Microsoft demonstrated the feature, showing how Snapchat can be mirrored. Users can interact with Snapchat on their Windows 10 PC.

Availability

In part, Your Phone helps Microsoft bridge the app gap that has plagued Windows 10. While Your Phone is available with the now available October 2018 Update, it seems Android app mirroring will come later.

That means Your Phone is still limited to features like sharing images and mirroring Microsoft apps. We hope Android app mirroring will come soon, but we suspect it may be held back until the 2019 first half Windows 10 release.

Your Phone is a rare Android exclusive from Microsoft. Microsoft explains the reason the service is not coming to iOS is because of the closed ecosystem Apple enforces.

Indeed, the company says if the app is ever made available on the platform it would be in a limited capacity.

SourceZDNet
Luke Jones
Luke Jones
Luke has been writing about all things tech for more than five years. He is following Microsoft closely to bring you the latest news about Windows, Office, Azure, Skype, HoloLens and all the rest of their products.

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