Windows 10 app mirroring brings your Android apps to your desktop

At Microsoft’s Surface event today in New York City, the company launched some new Surface computers. However, via The Verge, the company also took a brief minute to reveal a new feature for all Windows computers: Windows 10 app mirroring.

Using app mirroring, you can “cast” your entire phone display to your Windows 10 laptop or desktop. Using your mouse, keyboard, or touch display, you can then manipulate your Android device right from your computer. That means launching apps, texting, playing games, and more.

Microsoft says Windows 10 app mirroring will arrive with the Windows 10 October update, which will launch sometime soon.

Check out this image shown at the event displaying the basic gist of the service:

Microsoft didn’t give a full demonstration of how the new app mirroring service works, but it did show a person mirroring Snapchat on a Surface device:

Although this new app mirroring feature is new to Windows 10, the idea of using your Android phone on a desktop is not. There are many different services that allow you to do this, but the idea of the feature getting baked right into Windows is certainly nice.

This also isn’t the first time we’ve seen Microsoft embrace Android features on Windows. Recently, Microsoft launched the Your Phone app that allows you to text from your PC.

Once the Windows 10 October update arrives, we’ll go more in-depth with this new feature.

NEXT: Your Phone is Microsoft’s latest attempt to bridge the gap between Windows and Android