What Is Intel Unison? A New Way To Control Your Smartphone From A Laptop

Don't expect it to make an impact until 2023 and beyond, but today Intel unveiled its Unison technology, developed in collaboration with an Israeli apple, that lets you easily control your phone from your laptop. . Unison's goal is to keep you "in the flow" as you juggle your smartphone and laptop throughout the workday. (For now, this should be the last Intel Evo laptop to support this latest technology.)

By giving you access and control from your laptop to your smartphone, Unison aims to reduce workflow disruption that can be caused by constantly switching devices. Trying to focus on work on your laptop while receiving phone calls, texts, and app notifications on your mobile device can definitely be distracting. If completely eliminating these distractions isn't an option, combining them on your laptop screen can help.

To that end, Unison users can store their phone connected to their laptop, receive and initiate calls and texts from their laptop, and more through Unison. Now some of these features are certainly nothing new, but they are the best part of the phone side. It should work with Android and iOS phones, as well as potential contact conversions. This sets it apart from existing phone/PC connectivity solutions, such as Windows' Your Phone feature.

creation in harmony

At the heart of Unison is technology from a company called Screenovate. In 2021, Intel acquired the Israeli company, a smartphone-to-screen projection innovator that works on screen sharing and cross-experience in a variety of ways. You are even using Screenovate technology without realizing it; Some system OEMs have already adopted their backend technology and rebranded it with their own solutions, such as Dell's Mobile Connect feature (opens in a new window) ( sunset by the way) and HP's Phonewise feature, which has been discontinued . in 2019.

When integrating Screenovate's architecture into Unison, Intel says a lot of attention was paid to optimizing platform performance, as well as fine-tuning the user interface and behavior. The power effort pointed out that Unison, which naturally runs in the background, wouldn't be a huge battery drain on the host laptop.

Many hybrid and remote workers, who have transitioned from the office to home, now navigate a jumble of communication hardware and technologies, in and out of Wi-Fi networks, Bluetooth connections, and cell phone-only environments. Unison's actual connectivity screws are tricky, as the company promises a seamless experience with WAN, Wi-Fi, cloud, cellular, and Bluetooth connections, and everything has to work to connect Unison-enabled PCs to Android. or iOS devices.

This is important because Samsung technology like this may only be available for a subset of Android phones, or Dell Mobile Connect may only work with specific Dell PCs. Your Windows 10 Phone and Connect to Windows 11 Phone, on the other hand, target Android and offer only a fraction of the functionality of Unison. Here, Unison must include the wide variety of phones available on the market, what connection mix you are currently in.

What does Unison do? The first stage

Intel initially said that Unison would provide four main phone-to-PC categories: calling, texting, notifications, and photo/file transfer.

The first is for answering or initiating calls from your computer, smartphone, and regular phone calls. It's pretty simple. For text messaging, users can receive text messages on their phone, view them on their Unison-enabled computers, and reply to them from there. They can also launch text messages from the Windows desktop to send them over the phone.

(Credit: Intel)

The third is to see phone notifications from applications installed on your laptop, such as WhatsApp or Telegram. Having all those pings stored centrally on the computer reduces the cognitive load of going back and forth between devices when there's a ring or a call. Finally, technology may make it easier to share files and photos between smartphone and laptop, so photos can be viewed in the Unison laptop's gallery, for example.

During the Intel Tech Tour 2022 event held in and around Tel Aviv, Israel in mid-September, Screenovate employees showcased the technology in various use cases. During one of the demos, a Screenovate representative took a photo with his smartphone while creating a slideshow on his laptop and accessed the image in the Unison Gallery UI on his Evo laptop (the phone was pre-equipped with Unison software). and drag the image directly into your presentation.

(Credit: John Burek)

In another scenario, a representative receiving a text message while working on another intercepts the computer's response without even touching the phone. And in another example (ordering food online, from a laptop), Unison simplified the two-factor authentication (2FA) process via SMS that included the phone as the authentication device. The 2FA verification code is sent via SMS to the demo donor's phone. you accessed the text messages from the laptop and voila, you didn't need to turn on the phone and manually enter the 2FA code on the laptop.

(Credit: John Burek)

Also, starting a WhatsApp call was as easy as going to the Notifications tab and starting the call. Here in this pre-built image provided by Intel, you can see the various icons that run on the left side of the Unison app for calls, texts, and more.

(Credit: Intel)

When will we see Unison? Daniel Rogers, general manager of mobile client platforms at Intel, said Unison will release 12th-gen Core laptops this year and names Acer, HP and Lenovo as partners. The exact launch date for the 13th Gen mobile chips has yet to be announced, but according to Intel, Intel Unison will be available in other 13th Gen Intel Core-powered Intel Evo designs in 2023.

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(Credit: John Burek)

What makes Unison different?

Now, of course, partially, Windows 10 and 11 have similar solutions from phone manufacturers (as mentioned, Samsung is the prime example) or some PC manufacturers. But Unison has the unique ambition of making the same features available for iOS and Android.

Unlike anything out there today, Unison relies on open standard interfaces and APIs, Josh Newman, Intel vice president and general manager of mobile innovation, told PCMag. He points out that Unison's software interface also makes a difference, especially in the file transfer experience. Great attention has been paid to design and intuition. Once synced, Unison Gallery content should be as easy as any other file on your desktop.

(Credit: John Burek)

It's no coincidence that Intel launched Unison on the Evo first, says Newman, because the company wants to get the experience right, starting with users who will buy an Evo computer; combined prolific hunters. There's a deliberate focus on implementing things like Bluetooth and Wi-Fi networking, so the experience is seamless. "We want it to remain a premium experience," he said.

Also, flexibility of connectivity is important, but not easy to achieve, as Unison works over wired or wireless technologies. A Bluetooth connection between your Evo laptop and the devices may be preferable for smartphone calls, while Wi-Fi makes more sense for file transfers. In some cases, you may want the phone to connect to your own cellular network and work with Unison through the cloud, which is also an option. On the other hand, other competing solutions may require, for example, that the phone and laptop are on the same Wi-Fi network.

The Unison app itself will be a Windows app, and will come pre-installed on a small subset of Evo systems to begin with. (This is only compatible with Windows 11 22H2 and later). You must download the Unison app from the Google Play Store or Apple Store with your phone. As for the operating system of the phone, you need iOS 15 or later or Android 9 or later.

In theory, Unison could be implemented as a software download for other machines later on; Newman points out that Unison is not intrinsically tied to the hardware aspects of the 12th or 13th generation Core Evo platform. So while Unison is a limited-edition tech today, it could be implemented in other, possibly older, cars as cornering develops.

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