Microsoft Announces App Mirroring To Let You Use Any Android App On Windows 10

At its Surface launch event, Microsoft announced a new feature for Windows 10 that will let Android users use any app on their device on a Windows 10 desktop. Microsoft is referring to the feature as app mirroring, and it appears to only be available for Android users. "It looks to be a significant step in helping bridge Windows 10 and the mobile ecosystem after the demise of Windows Phone," reports The Verge. From the report: We didn't see an extensive demo onstage, but we did get a look at a user exchanging Snapchat messages with a friend on a Surface device using the app mirroring feature. Microsoft says the feature will be available in the new Windows 10 October update.

Watching the video. BlackBerry Blend for Android?

[SirDrinksAlot]

It seems an awful lot like an Android version of BlackBerry Blend (for BB10), just offering messaging and file access. It seems kinda redundant since my google drive already has all my photos and files, plus the sms in browser feature that's recently been added.

Re:

[youngone]

It also sounds a lot like that KDE phone thing that I've never quite found a use case for.

Re:

[rtb61]

The reason why, M$ want to datamine the Android apps when you use them and that means datamining everything you do with that app, especially when you use that up on an Android device and then use it on PC with that data from the Android device, so no positives, just eww, don't do it, simply do not do it.

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[Joce640k]

Who's going to use a phone app on a desktop anyway?

No touch screen, no vertical orientation, yada yada.
.

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[pjt33]

Not all Androids are phones. I know that some people use an app I develop for Android tablets in an emulator running under Windows. The interesting question is whether this is better than blueStacks et al.

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[Bite The Pillow]

Not a desktop. Surface or other tablet with touch interface is the target. And some people might like to access the same tools whatever device they are on st the time. But mostly Surface users with Android phones.

Re: Watching the video. BlackBerry Blend for Andro

[mrchew1982]

A growing number of mobile service workers are forced to use their phones to turn in paperwork (work orders, receipts, quotes, etc). I would imagine that this is aiming at them. At my HVAC company we are forced to use AT&T Workforce Manager, a horrible app with gps tracking baked in. I would love to use a keyboard with a larger screen for submitting my reports.

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[thegarbz]

It seems kinda redundant since my google drive already has all my photos and files

Leaving aside the fact that not everyone clouds things, access to the file system is the first stage of integration. Access to key apps is the second. MS is already working on mirroring any Android app. Right now the software looks a bit useless. It may get less so going forward.

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[johnsie]

MS are more intersrted in selling their cloud platform tools these days. They have their own Android Launcher which is actually pretty good. No point in trying to maintain a whole OS when you can just maintain the front end.

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[OneHundredAndTen]

You got it backwards. Such as things are, Microsoft has to do this in order to delay Windows' drift toward irrelevance.

Re: Confused

[tysonedwards]

Well, in early development, it required the Arrow Launcher itself, so moving to a less significant APK Iâ(TM)d call an improvement for many as they wonâ(TM)t need to learn a new UI on their devices to use convergence.

Rumor of MS Android with no ASOP

[Billly Gates]

Bill Gates (not me) owns a Samsung phone and we know that MS gave up on WIndows Phone then it is no wonder. MS wants a MS flavored Android with Visual Studio Android .NET Ximarian apps and of course a MS store. WSL for Windows 10 to run Linux was from project Astoria that was meant to run Android apps on Windows 10.

It seems MS wants a piece of Android pie which is so weird but makes sense as MS now loves Linux and open source.

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[Anonymous Coward]

MS seem to be trying to make Windows interoperable with everything else. The desktop is still overwhelmingly Windows and really always has been so if that same desktop that has broad hardware and application support can also run your Android programs and your Linux programs in a seamless way it continues to make the platform attractive for desktop users. (and yes I know, im not talking about slashdot people who just hate microsoft and love linux but hate ubuntu and hate systemd, etc...)

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[johnsie]

MS have their own android launcher. They don't need their own Android

Piece of Android pie

[DrYak]

It seems MS wants a piece of Android pie which is so weird

Not weird at all.

The events has proven that the market can currently only hold a duopoly of ecosyastems (Apple's iOS walled garden, and the Android Google Play Store), there's currently no room for a number 3.
Microsoft tried hard with their Windows Phone stuff and completely failed. (For once they are on the receiving end of the ecosystem's network effect)

To have any chance of survival, a potential number 3 needs to be able to tap into one of the dominant eco-systems (see Jolla's Sailfish), or risk being ne

Sounds just like Dell's Mobile Connect

[JoeyRox]

https://www.pcworld.com/article/3246087/apps/dell-mobile-connect-app-mirrors-your-smartphone-on-your-pc.html [pcworld.com]

Not enough

[Blinkin1200]

Not enough for me to let Windows 10 near ANY computer I own.

No thank you.

Re:Not enough

[thegarbz]

Thanks for your input. To help us in the future please provide an itemised list of all the other things you don't want.

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[ArchieBunker]

I can't think of a single reason of needing to run a phone app on my desktop.

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[Anonymous Coward]

You mean OS/2.
But it's not the same thing, this is more like a thin client or Steam streaming or the proprietary protocol to stream an iPhone/iPad to a TV.
If I understand it correctly, it won't work if you don't network your Windows PC with a phone. They're also probably horrified that ChromeOS or Google Chrome browser may allow this, and if they do nothing the kids will all use Chrome or ChromeOS to show or use Snapshit or Whatscrapp on a desktop or laptop, if that becomes a thing.

It'll probably work if we

Not such a great deal

[Anonymous Coward]

The title of this article makes it sound like such a great deal, but it applies only to Android software running on an ARM tablet. The article doesn't say that I can run any Android software, installed on an ARM cell phone, on an Intel PC running Windows 10.

Our most frequently used app is restricted to cell phone use only, so it's not as great a deal as the title makes it sound.

I don't understand

[Anonymous Coward]

If I run Android apps on Windows 10, will it be Google or Microsoft that's stealing my data?

Re:

[webmistressrachel]

Both.

Scrcpy

[johnsie]

Thanks, but I already run scrcpy on my desktop to control my phone Windows:https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy Debian/Ubuntu: https://xn--joh-9ma.com/contro... [xn--joh-9ma.com]

Watch out

[aleck7]

Bluestacks is in danger then.

Re:

[PmanAce]

Good, they have more bloatware than any other "service" I have ever seen.

Still pretty limited

[Tony Isaac]

After trying this feature, I see some pretty serious limitations.
1. It only does text messages and the "stock" Android photos app.
2. In the messaging app, it does not show any pictures that are in a message thread.
3. It does NOT sync with Google Photos.

I was hoping for something more like a remote desktop, but hey, they're trying.

For text messages on your PC, Google Messages for Web [android.com] is better--it handles photos as well as text.