One of the benefits of being in the Apple ecosystem is a happy relationship between macOS and iOS, letting you use features across platforms.
One such feature is notifications for certain elements, including text messages. So if you have the correct feature turned on, you can get a notification on your Mac or even your iPad when you receive a text message or iMessage on your phone. You can even reply on the other devices as well. Unfortunately, if you prefer Microsoft‘s Windows for your computer’s operating system, that level of interoperability is not available.
But that will be changing soon, at least for owners of some Dell-branded Windows PCs. Bloomberg has the report on Thursday, detailing Dell’s plans to release a software update that will allow the computes to mirror the iPhone. The report states that this move is Dell hoping its computers will become more attractive to iPhone owners.
The software update will boost the Dell Mobile Connect feature, which is already available to do similar features with Android-based devices. Once the update arrives, which Dell says will roll out over the next few months, it will allow owners of a Dell PC to not only sync data to their computer from their phone, but also mirror the iPhone’s screen as well.
Bloomberg says that this will make it possible for iPhone owners to quickly drag photos, videos, and files to their Dell Windows PC. What’s more, the Mobile Connect feature will notify the user of incoming text messages, and even let them reply to the message right from the computer.
Interestingly, it remains unknown if this is some kind of joint venture between Dell and Apple, or if Dell is relying on its own solutions to get this to work.
As far as supported devices go, they include the Dell-branded Vostro, Alienware, Inspiron, and XPS machines, all of which need to be running the latest version of Windows 10.
This all sounds well and good, but hopefully Apple doesn’t try to fight it — if it isn’t a joint venture between the two companies, that is. There’s no denying that Apple wants to keep its ecosystem as one of the primary reasons to buy its products, so offering a similar feature for Windows users might disrupt that whole ideal.
Of course, this is great news for folks who own support Dell computers. So let’s hope it sticks around.