Today I made a phone call using my PC, via my mobile phone. This was made possible thanks to a new preview feature in the Windows 10 Your Phone app.
I’ve been watching the functionality of the Your Phone app grow over recent months, adding support for dual-sim Messaging, Phone screen and now the ability to make and receive Calls.
Traditionally businesses have provided desk phones for employees and as mobiles arrived, they added another line item to the budget. With the Your Phone app enabling people to make and receive calls using the USB headset of their computer, the days of the desk phone are well and truly numbered.
The call works over the Bluetooth connection between your phone and your PC and with the right Android phone (new devices added all the time) the call can be passed from the mobile, to the desktop. As with other notifications from your phone, a new inbound phone call will alert you in a toast prompt.
When you’re on a call, you have the ability to transfer the call to mobile, perfect if you need to leave your desk and continue the conversation.
There’s a full call history displayed on screen, making it easy to continue the conversation with calls to previous callers. I love the integration with your contacts, so you’ll even get profile photos of those contacts you have on your system, great if you’re screening calls.
About the only feature that’s missing right now is calling on dual-sim, so for now at least you don’t get the choice between dialing out on your work or home numbers. Like with messaging, that feature will certainly arrive in the future, but for now it simply uses your primary sim.
This is a fantastic piece of work by Microsoft and really does pave the way to get back to a single phone, but leverage that headset for hands-free calling when at your desk.
Sounds like groundbreaking new technology, a real game changer…. Oh, wait. I’ve been doing that with my iPhone and iPad and Apple Watch and Mac for YEARS!
What kind of halfwitted business person would want Microsoft embedded in their phone system? Almost as bad as having Avaya charging like a wounded bull for every little “upgrade”. I switched to Asterisk and haven’t spent a cent on pabx or like maint in 5 years.
Hey Elvis, not sure you fully understand what’s on offer here. Pairing your phone to your PC, then opens up the option of using your headset to make and receive calls from your mobile (via the YourPhone app).