How do you usually go about accessing the content on your smartphone on your computer? That is assuming the computer in question runs on Microsoft’s operating system, Windows. For many, answers will vary. For me personally, that is easy. I have been using Pushbullet for quite a long time now that it has become hard to separate me and that app. Sure Pushbullet has kind of pushed many of us free users to the edge after its makers made most of the features that made us fall in love with the app and its promise accessible only to paying subscribers but some of us don’t mind, it works.
The existence of Pushbullet and several other apps (I am compiling a list of them; out soon…) shows that there is a need. As the smartphone becomes our go-to device almost all the time since it is with us everywhere, there’s almost always a need to extend it to whatever we’re up to on our larger computing devices. That is why smartphone makers like Samsung and Huawei, and even Microsoft itself, have several solutions that allow users to do this easily using dongles and other dedicated devices that can be a tad too expensive.
What if everything was just built into the operating system and users didn’t have to care much about getting the latest photo they have taken on their desktop either for use as a wallpaper or for onward transmission to a colleague via Outlook? Or respond to that urgent text message from your girlfriend without having to remove your phone from your pocket? Microsoft, it appears, has been thinking about that and that’s why at its ongoing annual developer conference, Build 2018, the company took the stage to announce a new app simply named “Your Phone” that will simplify the linkage between a user’s computer and their smartphone.
Microsoft is calling “Your Phone”, “A new way to connect your phone to your PC with Windows 10 that enables instant access to text messages, photos and notifications.”
Unfortunately, there is no timeline with regards to when we can get to use “Your Phone”. Microsoft just says that it will be available to Windows Insiders, ordinary users like you and me who have opted to run test builds of Microsoft’s software products like Windows, starting later in the week. Eventually, it should morph into a product inside Windows to make the seamless connection between phone and PC possible.
Currently, Microsoft allows users of its Edge browser on Android to link their devices with their computers and be able to send articles they’re reading on their phones to their computers.
