One UI 6.1.1 makes streaming apps to your Windows PC less annoying

In case you have an Android cellphone and a Home windows PC, then among the best issues you are able to do to make them work higher collectively is to put in Hyperlink to Home windows in your cellphone. By putting in Hyperlink to Home windows in your Android cellphone, you may entry numerous its capabilities by means of the Home windows Cellphone Hyperlink app in your PC, together with seeing and sending textual content messages, making cellphone calls, controlling music playback, and extra. Some options in Cellphone Hyperlink, equivalent to app streaming, are solely accessible if Hyperlink to Home windows is preinstalled in your Android cellphone, although. Hyperlink to Home windows is preinstalled on Galaxy telephones operating Samsung’s One UI software program, for instance, however after the One UI 6.0 replace, streaming apps from Galaxy telephones to Home windows PCs turned type of annoying. Fortuitously, that is now not the case because of a change in One UI 6.1.1.

After the Android 14 replace rolled out to customers with Android telephones that supported app streaming through Hyperlink to Home windows, individuals rapidly found that the replace made streaming apps rather more annoying.

The issue that many individuals have been now dealing with was that, following the Android 14 replace, they needed to faucet the “begin now” button each single time they wished to reflect their cellphone’s display screen or an app. Earlier than the Android 14 replace, you solely needed to faucet the “begin now” button as soon as per boot. This alteration primarily compelled you to succeed in over on your cellphone each single time you wished to stream a unique app to your PC.

The rationale this occurred was as a result of Android 14 closed a loophole that apps like Hyperlink to Home windows have been utilizing that allowed them to bypass asking the consumer for consent each time they wished to stream an app.

To be extra exact, the API that Hyperlink to Home windows was utilizing all this time—MediaProjection—was by no means supposed for use for streaming apps. As a substitute, it’s designed for recording or casting the system’s display screen, not controlling it. Letting any app document the display screen could possibly be harmful, which is why each time an app desires to begin a display screen recording session through the MediaProjection API, the system asks the consumer to grant the app permission. That is the place that dialog with the “begin now” button is available in.

Earlier than Android 14, although, apps have been capable of bypass the MediaProjection consent dialog by reusing the identical intent returned beforehand after they invoked the API. This successfully meant they solely needed to ask for permission as soon as per boot. Google noticed this as a safety concern and thus closed this loophole in Android 14, although, that means apps now must get consent from the consumer each time they need to use the MediaProjection API to document or solid the display screen. The result’s higher safety for all customers but in addition a extra annoying app streaming expertise.

If you happen to use the Chrome OS Cellphone Hub function to stream apps out of your Android cellphone to your Chromebook, although, then you definitely weren’t affected by this transformation in Android 14. That’s as a result of the Cross-Gadget Companies app on Android telephones makes use of the working system’s Companion App Streaming APIs, a set of APIs Google launched in Android 13 that have been designed for app streaming. If you attempt to launch an app out of your cellphone on a Chromebook, Cross-Gadget Companies creates a digital show, launches the app onto that show, after which streams a video of that show to the Chromebook. Chrome OS then relays inputs and different information again to the digital show.

With the discharge of One UI 6.1.1, which is presently solely accessible on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6, it appears that evidently Microsoft has migrated its Hyperlink to Home windows Service over to Android’s purpose-built implementation. Because of this, I now not must faucet a button each single time I need to stream an app from my Galaxy Z Fold 6 to my Home windows PC. My cellphone nonetheless needs to be unlocked with a view to stream an app, however that’s an intentional and comprehensible limitation that Microsoft put in for safety causes.

Left: Demonstrating that Hyperlink to Home windows on the Galaxy Z Fold 6 now makes use of the identical digital show app streaming technique as Google’s Cellphone Hub.

Proper: Demonstrating that the Hyperlink to Home windows Service app has been granted the identical “App Streaming” position that Cross-Gadget Companies is granted on Pixel telephones.

The Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6 are the primary units I’ve seen to incorporate this up to date Hyperlink to Home windows implementation. Different corporations like ASUS included a modification that permits for granting Hyperlink to Home windows consent to document the display screen till the following reboot, however that’s clearly not an excellent long-term resolution because it explicitly bypasses the safety restriction that Google deliberately put into Android 14. By migrating over to Android’s purpose-built implementation, Hyperlink to Home windows will be capable of make the most of any of the longer term options that Google might add to enhance Android’s app streaming expertise.