Microsoft has found a quick and easy way to instantly enjoy photos and other screenshots taken on an Android smartphone directly in Windows. A function that should arrive soon.
Until now, when you take a photo or take a screenshot with your Android smartphone, transferring it to your Windows 11-powered PC requires a few steps. You can of course use cloud backup services (like Google Photos for example), use the Nearby Share function, Nearby Share (soon to be renamed Quick Share) or even the Connected Mobile function, specific to Windows and which allows you to ‘access all or part of the content of the smartphone (depending on the brand). Although quite practical, these solutions lack immediacy and require a few operations and other clicks to recover the desired elements. But not for much longer.
The Microsoft teams have in fact revealed in a blog post some new features coming in one of the next Windows 11 updates and currently being tested in the Insider Canal Dev version (the version of Windows currently in development). Among these, the possibility of directly recovering a snapshot or a screenshot taken with an Android smartphone in a single click. Provided that the mobile and the PC (on) are within range of a Bluetooth connection, as soon as a photo or screenshot is taken on the mobile, a notification will appear in Windows. Just click on it and the image will be opened in Microsoft’s System Screen Capture tool. It will then be possible to modify it, annotate it and share it as you wish.
You will of course first have to authorize the PC to access the content of the smartphone by linking it to your Microsoft account. A bit like the Connected Mobile function already in place in Windows.
A very practical function which will save a lot of time and no longer tear your hair out trying to get your smartphone and PC to communicate.