Microsoft Your Phone came out last year, providing Windows 10 users with an opportunity to mirror their Android phone screen on a computer that runs Windows 10. This app allowed greater integration between Windows 10 and Android-native apps, allowing users to easily navigate without grabbing their phone. Nevertheless, the feature was kind of lackluster and now the company is expanding functionality for the Microsoft Your Phone feature.
Microsoft released the Windows Insider Preview (Build 18885) last Friday in which it introduced a new update to Your Phone. Now, users who enjoy the feature can also get Android notifications to the Your Phone app. This feature adds a lot more flexibility because smartphone alerts and notifications will be delivered straight to the Windows 10 PC without you actually picking up your phone to read them.
Microsoft released a set of screenshots that explain how the feature works, and we can see that different apps are supported, including notifications from Google Maps, Snapchat, Uber, WhatsApp, Outlook and other Android apps.
After updating the system, the Microsoft Your Phone feature will provide a list of Android apps you installed, in which you can opt whether you want to receive notifications for certain apps or not. The Preview also comes with usability tools which are also available to your smartphone, allowing you to see the notifications in one place, clean them individually or completely. Based on the screenshots, you likely can’t respond to the notifications just yet. Perhaps Microsoft is planning on expanding the feature additionally.
The Microsoft Your Phone feature is available on Windows Insiders on 19H1 builds, and can be used by Android phones that run version 7.0 (Nougat version) or newer, in combination with Windows 10-running PCs on build 1803 or newer. According to the press release, the feature will come with all the notification tools in the “coming days.” All users will receive the new feature once the testing is complete, although it’s worth noting testing often takes a few months to be complete.
Aside from introducing the new feature, Microsoft also included additional phones that run Android which are eligible for the new feature including the OnePlus 6, OnePlus 6T, Samsung Galaxy S10e, S10, S10+, Note 8 and Note 9.
Microsoft also introduced a list of general changes and bug fixes that come with the Microsoft Your Phone feature.
- We fixed an issue that could result in USBs and SD cards being unexpectedly assigned a different drive letter after upgrading.
- We fixed an issue that could result in the post install setup message unexpectedly appearing while you were actively using your PC sometime after login.
- We’ve improved the layout of the App Volume and Device Preferences page in Sound settings and tweaked the page view for better usability.
- We’ve updated the text of the Storage Sense group policies to make them a bit more clear.
- We fixed an issue that could result in the “Make Windows better” page appearing after login showing “please wait”, with a progress wheel, for a long period of time. We also fixed an issue that could result in this page unexpectedly appearing while you were interacting with the device sometime after login.
- We fixed an issue that could sometimes result in Windows Hello looking for the user and immediately signing them back in right after locking the PC, rather than first prompting with “Welcome back, dismiss the lock screen to sign back in”.
- We fixed an issue that could result in some Insiders seeing only a flat blue screen when connecting to a recent build over remote desktop.
