Bottom line: Samsung's recently revealed Galaxy Note20 was another exhibit of the company's growing partnership with Microsoft. The two are not only collaborating on a special Xbox Game Pass app for the latest Note, but also working towards an improved mobile connectivity experience on PC. With Microsoft's latest update to its Your Phone app - currently available to Insiders - Note20 owners will be able to stream Android apps to PCs once the feature rolls out publicly, alongside the phone's launch on August 21.
Microsoft continues to add nifty features to its Your Phone app, catering particularly to Samsung Galaxy devices. In a recent blog post, the company highlighted its expanding partnership with Samsung across productivity and gaming experiences and shared that Note20 owners will be able to stream Android apps to PCs with Your Phone when the device launches.
Aside from the device limitation, at least initially, Your Phone will run/stream just one Android app at a time when the feature becomes publicly available in a few weeks, with support for running multiple apps arriving in November this year.
Users will also be able to pin their favorite Android apps to the Windows Taskbar or Start menu for quick access, allowing Your Phone to offer its own set of features and compromises over Dell's Mobile Connect.
Though it's unknown if Microsoft will open this feature to support other Android devices, the company's own upcoming Surface Duo could offer a similar connectivity experience with Windows 10 PCs.
Additionally, Microsoft is also collaborating with Samsung on productivity apps. The latter's Notes and Reminders app will soon automatically sync with Microsoft's To-Do, Outlook, and Teams apps on PC.
Meanwhile, Android users residing in the US are getting support for Outlook's 'Play My Emails' feature, enabling them to listen and respond to inbox messages vocally.
Microsoft also highlighted its cloud gaming partnership with Samsung, confirming previous reports of special optimizations for Xbox Game Pass on the Galaxy Note20. Pre-ordering customers of the latest Note and Galaxy Tab S7 will be able to benefit from Samsung's Gaming Bundle that includes PowerA's MOGA XP5-X Bluetooth controller and three months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.
Although pre-ordering customers of the Note20/Tab S7 will begin receiving their units later this month, they'd have to wait until September 15 to start streaming games on the go with Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.
They will also need to download a special version of Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass app available exclusively on Samsung's Galaxy Store. Among other factors, the two companies have seemingly agreed to bypass the PlayStore in order to avoid Google's 30 percent fee, not to mention the latter's own cloud gaming rival: Stadia.