Microsoft took to the stage of its annual Build conference on May 7 to reveal a suite of new Microsoft 365 features aimed at helping developers and enterprise users get more out of Windows 10 and their phones. Of course, that also means a few new features that will be helpful in smoothing the experience for Android users who often need to work on both their Windows and Android devices. The central focus for Microsoft appears to be on bringing the various environments that people commonly work in together in a seamless way. So one of the biggest new features of its 365 platform is that a new update will soon allow access to text messages, photos, and notifications when a device is connected to Windows 10.
While Microsoft hasn’t detailed how it is implementing that, it has said that users will be able to drag and drop photos and documents between the phone and a PC with a single action. Moreover, the ability to access texts and notifications should effectively turn any Windows 10 PC with the feature into an extension of the phone and vice versa. There’s no timeline for that rollout, for now, but Microsoft has said it will be rolling out to its early-access channel “soon.” Meanwhile, the Microsoft Launcher application for Android is also getting an update that will help customers access business applications on their PC via Microsoft Intune. What’s more, that update will support Timeline. For end users, that means easy access to cross-device application launching. The company also hasn’t provided a specific time frame for launch there. So these features could be quite a ways out still or they could be just around the corner. For the time being, it may be better not to speculate since there’s really no way to know
In the meantime, once the changes do start rolling out, these updates should make migrating work to and from devices. It should also make the process of keeping a handle on workflows between Android devices and a Windows 10 PC a much simpler process than with other connectivity methods. At very least, these types of updates to Microsoft Launcher may very well move it into position as the most productive launcher app ever created for Android.