LG Virtoo Will Soon Stream Phone Apps To Windows 10 PCs
Samsung's close partnership with Microsoft has many aspects and perks but perhaps the most significant is the bridge between Windows 10 PCs and some Galaxy phones. While Windows' Your Phone does support many Android phones, some of the best features are exclusive to a few high-end models only. LG decided to strike off on its own as well, independent of Microsoft's direct cooperation, but it might not be as barebones as initially presumed.Virtoo by LG isn't exactly made by LG, despite the name. It is developed by Screenovate, the same development house that made Dell Mobile Connect which offered similar functionality. Screenovate's technology has actually been around before Your Phone came into existence but now it seems like it is the one catching up instead.
Twitter user Aggiornamenti Lumia teased a screenshot that showed Virtoo's ability to stream a phone's functionality to a Windows 10 PC. Beyond just the usual messages and notifications, however, it shows icons for apps that one can run on the PC without having to pull out the phone. Technically, this is simply mirroring the phone's screen but on a per-app basis rather than just running a virtual copy of the phone.
While this sounds very similar to the Your Phone Windows 10 app, the one key difference is that the Windows 10 app is actually a Progressive Web App or PWA. While that may not have any consequences as far as local app performance goes, it is still unknown whether it means that Virtoo will also require an active Internet connection to make this work in a roundabout manner.
Spoiler: PWA pic.twitter.com/vtHmlrtVuS
— Aggiornamenti Lumia (@ALumia_Italia) February 8, 2021
At the moment, the functionality is still unavailable and Virtoo by LG is compatible only with LG laptops anyway. Unfortunately, this doesn't really do away with the exclusivity that Samsung enjoys and only shifts it towards LG instead.