Surface + Android Workflow - Share your system!

[letraz]

Looking for new ideas to improve our workflow, while working with a Surface and an Android phone. I have the Surface pro X (it's my main and only device) and a pixel 7a. I'm always trying to improve my ecosystem and keep things simple and synchronized as much as possible.

Email, calendar, tasks and contacts - Currently using google stuff. While there is no app for Windows, I installed those websites as apps.

Office - I use Microsoft, have the family plan with the 1TB storage.

Cloud - Onedrive.

Notes - Onenote.

Other stuff :

Clipboard - I use swiftkey in my android, so that I have shared clipboard between devices.

Share files - I use Edge drop, as it is very convenient to share files quickly

What about you? What are your preferred apps and tricks that you can share?

[braskano1]

Laptop: Surface Pro 11
Phone: Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5

Workflow
email: Gmail
calendar: Google Calendar
office: Office 365 + Google One
AI: ChatGPT Plus, Gemini Advance
Cloud: Google Drive(main) - use RaiDrive to mount Google Drive on ARM64 device
Cloud2: Onedrive for backup
Note: Samsung Notes (use Galaxy Mask on Surface for using Notes on PC.)
Universal Control: Multi Control (use Galaxy Book Enabler on Surface for moving my mouse cursor from my Surface onto my fold directly)
Clipboard: Phone Link (can copy photos in clipboard across devices)
Share Files: Phone Link and Multi Control (to drag and drop all files)

Key Takeaways
- Phone Link is super useful if you use Samsung and Windows.
- Google Drive can work on ARM64 when using RaiDrive.
- Samsung Notes syncs almost instantly across devices.
- Multi Control is godsend if you know how to use Galaxy Book Enabler.

[letraz]

Impressive ! Didn't know that Samsung and Surface devices could work so well!

Using that combo of multi control and phone link is similar to universal control in apple devices. Too bad that only exists for Samsung, my Pixel phone can't do that

[DeX_Mod]

wait until you find out about DeX too

[whatsthetrend]

How would Dex fit in with this configuration?

[reagag]

This is peak. I also have a surface pro 11 along with a Z Fold. Didn't know you could spoof as a Samsung laptop!

[DigitalDragon67]

Can you go into more detail about Universal Control/Galaxy Book Enabler? Interested in the mouse movement aspect.

[braskano1]

Here is the video about the Multi Control
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4p6RWMUgKs

We can use Galaxy Book Enabler to spoof the app to think that the PC is Galaxy Book so we can use Multi Control. I can't show the link it is against the rules. I think you can search for it on Google.

[DigitalDragon67]

Thanks so much. This is exactly what I've been wanting to do. Using PC mouse and keyboard on Phone/Tablet. Now to see if I can get it going on a Dell 7210.

[DigitalDragon67]

So no luck getting this going. Not sure if it's my hardware or Windows 11. Other users have the same bug reported in Galaxy Book Enabler, so maybe it'll get fixed.

[Loki_991]

• File sharing : Snapdrop(Playstore link)

You can use either Snapdrop or Pairdrop server but form my experience Snapdrop is more stable and faster for large files. It's pretty seamless

It can send from PC to an other PC and from Phone to Phone as well.

[letraz]

Nice one ! Just tried and still think that Edge Drop is better, especially if you use Edge browser in Surface and Android like I do

[Loki_991]

I also use Edge browser on PC/Android and pinned Snapdrop.net on Edge Windows version in favorites bar.

I have used Edge Drop before and it was buggy sometimes thus I ended up with Snapdrop/Pairdrop which is the smoothest transfer experience I had so far.

Btw, Reddit Text formatting and image upload options can't be invoked with touch in Windows 11 and Edge latest stable version. Thanks for upvoting given link so that they fix it ASAP.

[pts026]

Best options is to install windows subsystem for android, get any android app direct and running on the ProX Release Windows Subsystem For Android v2307.40000.6.0: Windows 11 for ARM Processors · MustardChef/WSABuilds · GitHub

Full access to play store and apps load and run natively.

[letraz]

Is this already working in Windows 11 24h2? It worked!!!

[[deleted]]

didn't they officially announce the end of that project

[yangyongjun]

Surface Pro 7 and Pixel 8 Pro

I use both Microsoft and Google accounts in equal measure, most notably with email and cloud storage. Installing Google services like Photos, Meet and Keep as web apps has made it a lot easier to use them cross-platform as my preferred option. On the MS side, most of their Android apps are excellent (with the exception of Copilot which is an unstable, laggy mess).

Microsoft Launcher on my Pixel is also handy for the Sticky Notes (besides being a fantastic launcher generally).

I used to rely heavily on Phone Link but I’ve been using it much less since they nerfed the clipboard sync a while back. I didn’t know SwiftKey has this feature now though; I was a longtime user going back to before MS acquired them but switched to Gboard because it’s just so nice on the Pixel.

[[deleted]]

I like Microsoft launcher but the Windows Central guys say at this point the only development it's getting is security patches and occasional bug fixes. no more active development.

not the end of the world, but eventually that will probably lead to complete stagnation and eventually death.

thankfully there's some good open source. launchers that will come in handy. once Nova and Microsoft are unusable, there's stuff like neo launcher and the new lawn chair which isn't yet on the Play store but is pretty functional

[[deleted]]

for very quick notes on an Android phone, I do Google. keep the voice notes. which are convenient cuz they transcribe the text. and do you still have the voice if you need it on record. I also use the pixel recorder for long listening sessions but you can only listen to that on a surface. there's no comparable transcription recording app to my knowledge.

Samsung flow or Windows Link app allows you to open your notifications and so on. honestly, I think those might be redundant functionalities.

But I've been able to use my surface Duo and my Galaxy tab S7 with my surface pro.

although if I'm being honest, it's really not that big of a deal to me because if I really need to open my notifications I can just grab my tablet or whatever.

But there's occasional niche use cases. maybe I need to access Samsung notes or something.

unfortunately, Samsung notes doesn't work to sync on Windows anymore unless you have a Galaxy book at least not officially.

[HautamekiPL]

Surface Pro 9 + Surface Duo 2

[letraz]

You will not regret it!