Microsoft Announces Enhanced Windows 365 App Experience for Android

In August, Lenovo announced the ThinkPhone by Motorola, its first Think-branded smartphone, and it revealed at the time that it would soon offer some unique features derived from Lenovo’s partnership with Microsoft: a way to access “the full experience of Windows 365” on the device and some enhancements to its “Think 2 Think” functionality.

That former feature is now called the Enhanced Windows 365 App Experience, and it’s available now as an integrated feature on the ThinkPhone. Better still, it will be coming to other Android devices in the future, though Microsoft is being quiet about which models.

“The Enhanced Windows 365 App Experience is designed to accommodate a wide range of users across different situations and business contexts,” Microsoft’s Catalin Ionescu and Sneha Sultania explain in a new blog post. “The magic happens when you connect your device to a larger external display using a USB-C or HDMI cable, along with an external keyboard and mouse. This simple setup transforms your smartphone into a portable productivity hub, enabling you to work efficiently wherever you are. The compatibility with various monitors and peripherals and even the built-in virtual trackpad on the phone further enhances the Windows Cloud PC experience.”

I assume you had the same initial reaction to this that I did, that this is thematically similar to the Continuum feature from Windows phone, or Samsung’s Dex, in that it involves docking a smartphone and getting a full desktop experience. The difference, of course, is that Windows 365 runs in the cloud, and so this time the phone doesn’t have to do the heavy lifting. The OS you’re using on the big screen is running elsewhere.