Google is working with the likes of Intel, Acer and HP to make connecting your phone to your Windows PC through Fast Pair, share files between Android devices and Windows PCs with Nearby Share, set up Bluetooth accessories and sync text messages between the two computing ecosystems.
These new capabilities will come to select Windows PCs later this year and are part of what Google calls its effort to “invest in more helpful ways for your devices to work better together.”
Image Credits: Google
Over the course of the last few years, Google and Microsoft have both launched a number of initiatives that brought Android devices and Windows PCs closer together. That includes Microsoft’s work on its own Android launchers for its Surface phones, but more importantly, apps like Microsoft’s My Phone on Windows that lets you make calls and send text messages from your PC, or the Android subsystem for Windows that lets you run Android apps on Windows 11, though that’s a cooperation with Amazon, not Google.
In the case of the new features the company announced today, Google doesn’t like Microsoft as one of its partners either, so we’re mostly talking about some pre-installed software on new PCs from a small set of manufacturers here, not a new Windows 10 or 11 feature.