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Can we say that the feature was expected since the very beginning of the smartphone ? While .mp3 players of any brand already allowed them to behave like a normal storage volume. Useful for transferring files as long as a USB-A port (at the time) was available.
As soon as the iPhone called 2G arrived (it was nevertheless the first version available here), supposed to also be an iPod (which also allowed this), this basic and practical function was over. Of course, Android smartphones have still kept this option a little bit. But for this, it was necessary to adopt a special mode called OTG or over-the-go. Transferring files wirelessly to a computer was possible via certain third-party apps.
Your smartphone finally natively adopts a fairly old user request
Or a simple network configuration allowing the smartphone to be mounted remotely as an FTP or SMB volume. But none of it was actually native “out of the box”. Especially since on the other hand, Apple had already made things much more practical, at least in its ecosystem. With in particular Airdrop, allowing you to very easily and quickly transfer files occasionally in both directions. Then the addition of the native Files application on iPhone, Mac, and more generally in the cloud.
Enough to give the device, in a certain sense, a wirelessly mounted storage volume. Which is not the actual storage volume of the device that would have allowed iOS to be deeply modified by tinkerers and developers. We are at Apple after all… Closer to us, Microsoft has gradually begun to better integrate Android smartphones with Windows. But without really pushing the thing as much as Apple.
Fortunately, Satya Nadella's firm is in the process of fixing this. So in the latest Windows 11 Insider beta specially dedicated to Android users (this is a new feature) the magic finally happens to the great delight of users. “With this new experience, you will be able to browse all your folders and files wirelessly, including the media on your Android device”, Microsoft explains on its blog.
And to clarify for all intents and purposes : “you can open them, copy them to your PC, copy PC files to your smartphone, rename files, move them and even delete them”. In short your smartphone's storage space becomes a very practical external hard drive, while making it easier to modify almost all Android files, including system files or app configuration files.
Unfortunately, we can still regret that things are not also made simpler for iPhones on PC. And conversely for Android smartphones in the Apple ecosystem. Even with somewhat archaic hints of 2024, the ecosystem war is clearly not about to end…
How to test the feature now ?
It's actually quite simple as long as your smartphone is running Android 11 or later:
- On your PC, click on Start > Settings > Windows Update > Windows Insider Program to join the beta program if you haven't already.
- Select Getting startedthen Link an account to link your Microsoft account.
- Select channel Windows Insiders with Android phones.
- On your smartphone, install Link with Windows or update it to be sure to be on build 1.24071 or later.
- Pair your smartphone via Bluetooth to your PC.
- Your smartphone will then be automatically mounted as a normal volume in File Explorer aka Windows Explorer.
Practical not? For those who prefer to wait for the arrival of a stable version of Windows 11 with this feature, we have half-bad news: it is impossible to tell you exactly when. Microsoft doesn't usually communicate about the timing of the arrival of beta features in the latest Windows 11 Release Candidate. We can simply assume that it will arrive quickly, for want of anything better.
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