Windows will soon mirror smartphone apps on your PC

Whether it’s a busy professional life or nonstop personal life, we often alternate between our PCs and smartphones to get things done. Microsoft aims to reduce this switching for select Samsung Galaxy owners with its new Your Phone Apps feature.

Your Phone Apps will live within the existing Windows 10 Your Phone app and will allow you to connect your Samsung Galaxy smartphone and run certain apps right on your PC. All you do is open the Your Phone app in Windows 10, click “Apps” on the left and choose the app you want to run through your PC.

This won’t physically run the app on your computer. Instead, it’ll mirror the app from your Samsung Galaxy to your Windows 10 PC. With this mirroring comes some issues that Microsoft is aware of:

  • Some apps may block casting abilities, resulting in a black screen
  • Some apps aren’t compatible with a PC keyboard or mouse
  • Audio will continue playing on your smartphone, not the PC, while casting
  • Initially, you can cast only one app at a time

With Your Phone Apps enabled, if you’re at your PC and need to access a smartphone app for something, there’s no need to dig into your pocket for your phone. Instead, you can just launch the app on your PC, get the information you need and carry on.

Beyond interacting with smartphone apps on your PC, Your Phone Apps also allows you to add frequently used apps to a favorites section and pin apps to your Windows Task Bar or Start menu.

Before you can run Your Phone Apps on your PC, you must link your smartphone to the Your Phone Windows 10 app. You can do this by dragging down from the top of your smartphone, clicking “Link to Windows” and following the on-screen prompts.

Your Phone Apps is still in beta testing, and Microsoft hasn’t announced when it’ll be available to the general public. It’s also limited to only select Samsung Galaxy smartphones, including:

  • Samsung Galaxy Note 9
  • Samsung Galaxy S9
  • Samsung Galaxy S9+
  • Samsung Galaxy Note10
  • Samsung Galaxy Note10+
  • Samsung Galaxy Note10 Lite
  • Samsung Galaxy Fold
  • Samsung Galaxy S10
  • Samsung Galaxy S10+
  • Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite
  • Samsung Galaxy S10e
  • Samsung Galaxy A8s
  • Samsung Galaxy A30s
  • Samsung Galaxy A31
  • Samsung Galaxy A40
  • Samsung Galaxy A41
  • Samsung Galaxy A50
  • Samsung Galaxy A50s
  • Samsung Galaxy A51
  • Samsung Galaxy A60
  • Samsung Galaxy A70
  • Samsung Galaxy A70s
  • Samsung Galaxy A71
  • Samsung Galaxy A71 5G
  • Samsung Galaxy A80
  • Samsung Galaxy A90s
  • Samsung Galaxy A90 5G
  • Samsung Galaxy S20
  • Samsung Galaxy S20+
  • Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra
  • Samsung Galaxy Fold
  • Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro
  • Samsung Galaxy Z Flip