Microsoft Build Reveals My Phone

The Microsoft Build event has ended and the company has revealed a lot of information that shows how Windows applications and services will evolve over the coming year or two. While there are always talk about long term strategy at events like this, it’s pretty tricky to know what’s coming up beyond a year or so. But there have been some interesting developments.

I recently wrote about features I wish Microsoft would bring to Windows that are on the Mac. One of those was better integration of messaging from smartphones so SMS would appear on my Windows system, just as they do in Apple’s Messages app.

My Phone

The new Microsoft My Phone application mirrors the contents of your smartphone. It goes further than just showing messages as it also mirrors notifications, photos and some applications. It relies on a local connection between the phone and computer and no content is sent to any of Microsoft’s servers.

The ability to get a notification and then launch it on the PC using a local app is pretty useful and ups the ante on Apple’s AirDrop and Continuity features.

At the moment, it looks like it’s an Android only thing but Microsoft has said they are hoping to add better support for iOS devices.

My Phone is expected in the next major update to Windows, which will come in late October this year.