Microsoft limits Your Phone screen mirroring compatibility in the latest Insider Preview build

Your Phone is a Windows 10 innovation in which Android users have been able to control their phone's screens and some functions directly on their PC screen. This app has had a history of compatibility with non-Apple devices running Android 7.0 or later and with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). Unfortunately, Microsoft has put plans to change this connection to Wi-Fi only into practice with the latest Insider Preview Build.

This version of the OS, also known as Windows 10 19013 based on 20H1, accordingly removes BLE support in Your Phone. The Redmond giant asserts that this has been done to deliver "a more streamlined experience across all Windows 10 PCs by removing the peripheral role dependency for Phone screen". Unfortunately, it also limits the app's compatibility with a limited selection of devices from the company's new partner in screen-mirroring technology, Samsung.

This OEM touted the ability to use Your Phone features - part of a suite known as Link to Windows, under the terms of this collaboration - over Wi-Fi with the release of its recent flagships. This, then, may be why they appear to be exclusive to them, in addition to some other newer Galaxy-series phones, with the release of Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 19013.

Older versions of Your Phone may admittedly have been buggy and unreliable, but they were at least open to a much broader range of Androids. Now, however, it is now only possible to connect to PC in this way on the Galaxy Note 10 and S10 series, as well as the relatively new A30s, A50s and A90 - oh, and the Galaxy Fold, of course.