Microsoft introduces Your Phone app to access mobile via PC

Microsoft announces the Your Phone app for Windows 10, which allows users to access notifications and photos from their mobile with their PC. The company is also expanding the Microsoft Launcher with Timeline.

According to Microsoft, the Your Phone app should ensure a seamless transition of files on a mobile and on a PC. The company mentions messages, photos and notifications that can be accessed from a Windows PC and the goal seems to be that users do not have to grab their mobile phone to respond to notifications. This could be done with the app from the desktop. The app will be released this week through the Windows Insider Program.

It’s another attempt by Microsoft to make up for the lack of a mobile platform. Within Windows 10 there is already a Phone section in the settings, for example to continue with work that has already been started on an Android device or iPhone.

Another attempt at pairing smartphones with Windows PCs is the Microsoft Launcher on Android. This now supports Timeline, so that in the future Android users can, for example, start apps that they have previously worked with on Windows, provided the app supports this. If you run the Edge browser on an iPhone or iPad, you can view your browsing history on a Windows PC via Timeline and vice versa, you can request the Timeline with Edge on an iPhone.

Microsoft is also announcing that Universal Windows Apps will receive support for Sets. This is the upcoming Windows 10 feature to show multiple apps as tabs within a single window. Users can pick up and drag tabs to change the bundling of apps.