Microsoft is preparing a new feature for Windows 10 that will let Android phone users view their notifications and respond to text messages right from the desktop, reports The Verge. The new feature was announced at a session at this week’s Microsoft Build developer conference.
The basic idea is that the Microsoft Cortana virtual assistant app for Android will be able to communicate with Windows 10, relaying Android notifications like missed calls, text messages, and the like. If you reply to an Android text message from your PC, it gets relayed back to your phone and sent from there, so the reader on the other end won’t know the difference.
Not only is it handy – it helps Microsoft better compete with Apple, which already offers a similar feature. With an iPhone, you can send and respond to text messages from the Mac’s Messages app. It makes owning both a Mac and an iPhone a very powerful proposition. What Microsoft is prepping doesn’t sound quite as full-featured, but it’s way better than nothing.
Unfortunately, people who use an iPhone with a Windows 10 PC are still out of luck. Apple keeps lots of iPhone features under lock and key, meaning Microsoft literally can’t integrate one with Windows 10 in the same way it can with Android. The new feature will likely debut with this summer’s Microsoft Windows 10 Anniversary Update, a big free upgrade adding lots of stuff to the operating system, according to the report.