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Microsoft Your Phone app for Android makes it easier to send text messages from your PC

The new app brings messaging (and photos) from Android devices on to the Windows desktop.

Justin Jaffe Managing editor
Justin Jaffe is the Managing Editor for CNET Money. He has more than 20 years of experience publishing books, articles and research on finance and technology for Wired, IDC and others. He is the coauthor of Uninvested (Random House, 2015), which reveals how financial services companies take advantage of customers -- and how to protect yourself. He graduated from Skidmore College with a B.A. in English Literature, spent 10 years in San Francisco and now lives in Portland, Maine.
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  • Coauthor of Uninvested (Random House, 2015)
Justin Jaffe
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Tired of emailing yourself photos? Sick of being interrupted by text messages? Microsoft is making it easier to use your Windows PC to access the photos and messages on your Android phone.  

The company's new Your Phone app, included in the upcoming Windows 10 October 2018 update, displays recent photos and texts from your phone -- which you can drag, drop, copy and paste on to your desktop or into other applications. Initially, the app will support phones running Android 7.0 or newer versions of Google's mobile operating system. (The company did not specify whether or when it would make the feature available to iOS users.) The Your Phone feature will roll out to all Windows users on or around Oct. 9.

In June, Google released its own Web-based Android messaging app that works on both Mac and Windows devices. And Apple , which introduced seamless messaging across iOS and MacOS devices back in 2012, unveiled full photo and messaging synchronization via iCloud in June.

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Microsoft

Microsoft also announced some related enhancements to its Windows Timeline, which displays recently accessed files and sites and which launched in April. Beginning today, documents, emails and websites recently viewed on an Android phone will also be included in the Windows Timeline. In early November, the company will extend support for the feature to Apple devices that run Microsoft's Edge browser.

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