While they’re primarily used on different kinds of hardware–laptops and desktop PCs for Windows, and phones and tablets for Android–they both use their respective platforms to establish their own web services. Microsoft pushes Office, the Edge web browser, OneDrive, and the Cortana virtual assistant, while Google pushes Docs, Chrome, Drive, and its Google Assistant AI.

But now that the mobile version of Windows is on life support, Microsoft is leaning on Android for phone-to-PC synergy, offering the kinds of features you’d normally expect from a single, unified platform. With the Windows 10 Fall Creators update, which Microsoft released last month, Windows and Android are starting to make an unusually good team.

Building Links

To connect Windows 10 to an Android phone, you have to install the Android version of Cortana and sign into the same Microsoft account that your PC is tied to. Within the Cortana settings menu, you’ll find a “cross-device” section that covers all interactions between the phone and PC.

Most notably, Cortana can relay text messages and missed calls from your phone, showing them as notifications in the Windows 10 Action Center. You can even type out SMS replies on a PC, which then pushes them back out through the phone.

Cortana can also synchronize notifications from any Android app. This comes in handy for viewing activity alerts from a smart home service like SmartThings, receiving score updates from Yahoo Fantasy Sports, or getting reminded of live TV airings on a streaming app like YouTube TV.

Some of Windows 10’s mobile tie-ins also work with an iPhone. Start using a Microsoft app like Word, for instance, and a notification on your PC will offer to pick up where you left off. You can also share web links from the phone and have them open in Edge on the PC (though this requires installing a separate app instead of Cortana on iOS), and any reminders or tasks you set with Cortana on one device will automatically appear on others.