Microsoft Your Phone Gets Control of Android App w / Samsung Galaxy Devices

During the Samsung Galaxy Unpacked livestream, the South Korean company called for even tougher collaborations with Microsoft. This manifests itself with Android app control on selected Galaxy devices when using the Microsoft Your Phone app.

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[Update 08/24]: These exclusive features and device controls are now being expanded more extensively, thanks to a Windows 10 Insider update that Microsoft confirmed roll out now that the Galaxy Note 20 series has been officially launched worldwide.

With the update, you can pin apps on your taskbar for quick launch, while you can also launch apps directly in completely separate windows on your PC or laptop. One noteworthy thing that Microsoft mentions is that you can control all facets of Android apps in this mode via keyboard, mouse, pin and touch screen.

We are excited to announce that the Your Phone Apps feature that was unveiled at the 5th of August 5th Samsung Unpacked event is now slowly rolling out to General Public. As a reminder, your Phone Apps feature lets you directly access your Android phone’s mobile apps directly from your Windows 10 PC.

You can conveniently pin your favorite mobile apps to your taskbar as Start Menu on your PC for quick and easy access. When you launch an app, it opens in a separate window outside the Your Phone app, allowing you to multitask. So, if you need to quickly respond to a conversation, respond to your social messages, or order food, you can do it quickly with your big screen, keyboard, mouse, pen and touchscreen of your PC alongside your other PC apps!

To get the feature up and running, you need to run the latest your phone app and the latest Windows 10 build – version 20197. However, Microsoft has stated that you can use the features as long as you have a PC running Windows October 10, 2018 update or later.

You should also have your device on the same Wi-Fi network and have Android 9.0 or higher with Link to Windows integration – at the moment that means “officially” only selected Samsung Galaxy hardware mentioned below. Here’s hoping we see a wider rollout to non-Galaxy device in the coming months, as the feature looks really interesting!

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Microsoft announced the move while simultaneously announcing that you can run multiple Android apps at once when the Your Phone app is updated later this year.

As of today, Android phones that support the Phone screen feature of your phone app can see the preview of the apps See here list of supported devices. The ability to run multiple apps simultaneously is currently unavailable and will be introduced later this year.

You will need a supported Samsung Galaxy device to be able to check all the Android apps installed on your device. Of course, although the list is limited to just Galaxy hardware running Android 9.0 or higher, it still has quite a substantial amount of handsets. You can view the extensive list below:

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You need to run the latest Windows 10 Insider Preview Build to get started. But once installed, you can see a detailed list of all Android apps directly within the Your Phone app / window. From here, you can add frequently used or popular apps to a favorites section for quick access. You can even pin mobile apps to the Windows taskbar or Start menu.

When you launch an app from your Android phone, it will open in a separate floating window – almost like a new instance of said application. From there, you can control this application with your mouse and keyboard as if you were using your device directly.

However, there are some limitations according to Microsoft, with some issues with slow input on touch-enabled Windows 10 laptops and PCs.

• Some apps may block the ability to go to other screens and you will see a black screen instead.
• Some games and apps may not respond to your PC mouse or keyboard interactions. You will need to use a touch-enabled PC to interact with them.
• Audio from apps will play from your mobile device.
• The ability to run multiple apps will work out later in the year.

For those of you with a Samsung Galaxy device, you should be able to check your Android apps with the latest update of your phone from the Google Play Store – along with at least the Windows 10 October 2018 build on your PC.

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