BUILD 2016: Continuum for phones will soon be able to use any PC as a screen and keyboard

Reading time icon 2 min. read


Readers help support MSpoweruser. We may get a commission if you buy through our links. Tooltip Icon

Read our disclosure page to find out how can you help MSPoweruser sustain the editorial team Read more

continuum

At BUILD 2016 Microsoft demonstrated a feature for Continuum for phones which I have long been advocating.

Continuum for phones is great, but no-one is going to carry around an extra keyboard and screen, and unconnected and unused keyboard and screens are pretty rare to find, even in hotels.

What is however very common is laptops and PCs, even at hotels, where one can often find courtesy suites with PCs which can be used by guests. Offices are of course littered with the same.

In a coming update to Continuum for Phones users will be able to beam their session to any PC, and the Continuum session will be displayed in an app window, which can be made full screen. Microsoft demonstrated the feature using a Surface book and Lumia 950 at BUILD.

One may of course ask why not just use the PC instead of the slower and less capable phone. There are a number of reasons, including security, having your own configured apps already and having your data locally instead of from the cloud.

The only way this feature could be improved is if it was a feature that could be enabled above the lock screen for any PC, allowing random phone users to borrow the screen and keyboard of random PCs, with neither owners having any exposure or concern about privacy or security.

Do our readers agree?

More about the topics: Build 2016, continuum for phone