Microsoft adds more Your Phone app features; rolls out another Windows 10 20H1 test build
Microsoft is continuing to roll out new features for its "Your Phone" app alongside new builds of Windows 10 20H1. On May 29, Microsoft delivered Build 18908 of its 20H1 line. But more interestingly, it added a bunch of Your Phone features and continued to make them available on more types of Android phones.
Windows 10
Let's get the Windows 10 20H1 news out of the way. Today's build doesn't include any significant features but does add a bunch of fixes and updates. Read Microsoft's blog post for the full list.
Your Phone is Microsoft's app which allows users to see and interact with apps and services on their Android phones (and to a much lesser extent, iPhones) on their Windows 10 PCs. The most and newest features are available to those using the latest Windows 10 test builds.
Today's Your Phone updates for Android include the ability to send and receive MMS messages; the ability to send and receive images and GIFs from the Your Phone app; an unread message indicator/badge; a new visual indicator on the Messages node showing that a user has unread messages and/or a visual indicator on the PC taskbar on the Your Phone icon indicating unread messages; syncing of contact humbnails for contacts who have profile images; in-line reply to text messages from toast notifications without having to open the Your Phone app; and more.
Your Phone can now sync over mobile data, not just over WiFi. And Microsoft has enabled a couple of new accessibility options for screen reading and focus tracking with the latest build.
As of this release the Samsung Galaxy A8 and Galaxy A8+ are now on the supported phone model list. Currently, certain Android phones running Android 7.0 or greater work with YourPhone. Users also must be running at least Windows 10 Build 18338 and above and have a Windows 10 PC with Bluetooth radio and support for the low-energy peripheral role.
Microsoft still has yet to start fielding Insider test builds for 19H2, the feature update for Windows 10 due this fall. The 20H1 release is due in the spring of 2020. Sources have said that 19H2 will be a minor update with possibly a few of the 20H1 features backported to it and potentially turned off by default. Microsoft has yet to say anything officially about 19H2 other than it definitely will be coming later this year.
In related news, if you're already running Windows 10 19H1 (a k a the May 2019 Update, version 1903), Microsoft released on May 29 a big Cumulative Update for it, which includes a fix for the USB drive installation issue that prevented some from upgrading.