Developers can now make Android apps that can control parts of nearby Windows 10 PCs

Android may be the most used operating system for smartphones, but Microsoft still rules the PC market with its Windows OS. The company released its latest version, Windows 10, in 2015 and it is currently installed, depending on which report you believe, on over 20 percent of all PCs worldwide. The company says that over 400 million active devices are running some version of Windows 10.

This week, Microsoft released the first version of what it calls “Project Rome”. It’s an Android app SDK that allows developers to create software that can remotely control some parts of a Windows 10 PC. Any app that uses the SDK must first log into a Microsoft account that is available on both the phone and the PC.

Once that’s done, an app with Project Rome support can scan the local network for a Windows 10 PC. When that app finds such a PC, it can then be used to launch a Windows 10 app, or launch a web site by typing in a URL.

In the future, Microsoft plans to add a way for Android apps that also come with a Windows 10 version to be directly controlled from a smartphone, rather than just launch it. For example, a user could be able to open up his Android app and launch and control a movie remotely on his Windows 10 PC via a media player. Again, this feature is coming in a future Project Rome SDK version.

This new feature is just for controlling Android apps on a Windows 10 PC, and not vice-versa. Microsoft has not revealed plans to add that kind of support, but we would hope that’s kind of a no-brainer to include in a future release. This also proves that Microsoft continues to be a company that wants to support Android development, especially since its own Windows 10 Mobile OS is currently not much of a force in the smartphone market.

The first Project Rome Android SDK version can be downloaded right now via GitHub.