Andy Walker / Android authority
Tl; DR
- Microsoft will soon allow you to remotely lock your PC and access its clipboard directly from your Android phone.
- The new feature of the clipboard allows your phone to access the text and images copied to your PC, which is particularly useful for Android phones without the native cross synchronization of Link Native.
- A link updated to the Windows application on the phone will display the history of the copied items in the PC clipboard and will also include a new button to remotely lock your computer.
There are many tools to control your Android phone from a Windows or Vice Versa PC, but the most popular is Microsoft’s telephone link. The telephone link displays notifications, texts, photos of your phone, and even more on your Windows PC, but with a little additional configuration, it can do even more. Soon, the telephone link will also allow you to remotely lock your PC and access its clipboard directly from your Android phone.
When you connect your Android phone first to your Windows PC via the telephone link, not all features are activated out of the box. For example, you can use your Android phone as a PC webcam or access its files directly from Windows File Explorer, but only if you turn on these features first. To turn them on, you must open the Windows settings application, access to Bluetooth and devices> Mobile devices> Manage devicesAnd switch to “Use as connected camera” and “Show the mobile device in File Explorer”.
Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority
In this same menu, you will find other flip -flops, such as “get new photo notifications” and “Show the device name in Windows Share”.
Locate remotely and access your PC clipboard from your Android phone
These options are what is available on my PC performing the stable version of Windows 11. Users on the preview versions of recent initiates, however, see additional options in this menu. For example, the Télégramme Lance Adams user on the latest development chain has a new “Access the PC’s clipboard“Rocking. As its name suggests, this feature allows your connected Android access text and your images that you copy to your PC.
This new feature is currently one-sided, synchronizing your PC’s clipboard with your phone but not the opposite. Complete bidirectional synchronization generally requires the use of the “SYNC through the devices” function of Swiftkey or the option “copy and paste the crossroads” of the telephone link. This last option, however, is only available on phones provided with the preinstalled telephone link, which excludes Google Pixel phones. This makes the new PC-Tophel synchronization, particularly practical for pixel users, who missed the integration of the native clipboard found on many Samsung, OnePlus, Honor and Xiaomi devices.
In addition, the experience improves on the phone side. Telegram Legofan user, which is on the latest version of Canary, reports that a link updated to the Windows application now displays a history of items copied in the PC’s clipboard, not just the most recent.
Legofan also tells me that they see a new one “Lock“Application button, which allows you to remotely lock your Windows PC from your phone. This option is only available if you activate the correspondent”Distant PC controls“Turn into the Windows mobile devices menu, as illustrated below.
As a long-standing Windows and Android user, it is great to see Microsoft continue to create stricter integrations between the two platforms. Google is less incentive to improve its operating system with Windows, as the company focuses on its own chromed operating system ecosystem. Given the news that Google works to merge Android and Chrome OS in a single platform, it is unlikely that the objective will change.
What do you think of these new telephone connection features? Let us know in the comments below!
