Motorola and its parent company, Lenovo, have teamed up to launch a new Windows 11 app that promises to take the hassle out of mobile multitasking called Smart Connect, the app will turn Windows 11 laptops into a connectivity hub for users with Motorola smartphones and Lenovo tablets, turning them into a connectivity hub for users with Motorola smartphones and Lenovo tablets

Those of us who switch between laptops, tablets, and cell phones throughout the day know the struggle of getting all of our devices to work well together Apple may be best known for its exemplary ecosystem, but it's not perfect and certainly not compatible across brands; the Smart Connect app seems to bring some convenience to Lenovo and Motorola customers even if they own third-party computers It seems

Smart Connect, which will be available on all Windows 11 laptops next month, is a software solution that allows computers to sync their Lenovo Tabs with select Motorola phones (including the Razr, Edge, and G series) It allows for a variety of multitasking actions with paired devices, which Motorola and Lenovo demonstrated at MWC 2024

In the simplest example, one can drag and drop photos from a laptop to a tablet, or copy and paste a file from a laptop into a chat on a cell phone Entertainment playback can be thrown between devices on any of the three screens while using the laptop's trackpad and keyboard

But the coolest implementation that both companies showed us is how Smart Connect detects when the phone leaves the paired laptop and automatically launches a small window on the smartphone that is mirrored on the laptop's display This could come in handy whether you need to leave your phone in a different location for charging or simply want to keep an eye on your messaging app without taking your eyes off your laptop

Mirroring an iPhone to a MacBook via AirPlay is easy, but doing so takes up the entire screen of the laptop Alternatively, you can use your Samsung Galaxy phone as a computer by connecting it to an external display via Samsung DeX Smart Connect seems to fall somewhere in between these rival It appears to be positioned somewhere in the middle of these systems

Motorola and Lenovo have not set an official launch date for Smart Connect in the Microsoft Store or Google Play Store, but the version we saw at MWC looked quite functional for beta software In other words, it's probably not too far off from release