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Motorola phones are about to steal these iPhone features

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Someone holding the Motorola Edge Plus (2023).
Joe Maring / Digital Trends
Mobile World Congress 2024
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Motorola and Lenovo have just announced Smart Connect at MWC 2024. Smart Connect allows users a seamless multi-device experience between their PC, phone, and tablet. Basically, it’s like the device integration you expect in Apple’s ecosystem but with Motorola and Lenovo devices.

Smart Connect is a big step for both Motorola and Lenovo, as it shows off both companies’ commitment to delivering a smarter software solution for everyone. The Smart Connect ecosystem will benefit all consumers, from students and gamers to creators and business users. And for Android fans who have been looking enviously at Apple Land, it’s a nice taste of what iPhone, iPad, and Mac users have been enjoying for years.

Lenovo Tab Extreme showing Chrome.
Christine Romero-Chan / Digital Trends

Using Smart Connect will eliminate those pesky disruptions that can occur when one transitions between compatible devices (i.e., phones, tablets, and PCs). Smart Connect will allow users to switch tasks and maintain an uninterrupted workflow on existing devices without any extra effort. The biggest benefit of this will be the fact that you don’t need to purchase new devices of a particular operating system to achieve that goal.

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Smart Connect also has a feature where a user can amplify what is displayed on the phone to a bigger screen. This is incredibly handy for games, movies, television shows, and even apps.

There are several different ways that Smart Connect can be used.

Cross Control allows one to use a single keyboard and mouse to navigate between a PC, tablet, and a phone. There’s also swipe to stream, letting you transition various app activities to multiple devices through a single swipe gesture. Share hub is a way to quickly share files and media across compatible devices, even those on another operating system.

Notifications will also stay in sync across all of your devices. There’s even a universal smart clipboard, which lets you easily copy text and images to another device that uses Smart Connect. Instant hotspot transforms your phone into a protected hotspot for your tablet or PC. You can also stream videos and games or launch a mobile desktop directly onto a smart TV from your Motorola device.

Two Moto G 5G 2023 smartphones lying on top of each other.
Joe Maring / Digital Trends

And like Apple’s Continuity Camera, the webcam feature in Smart Connect lets you turn your smartphone into your webcam. This means you can use your phone’s high-resolution camera system and look your best on those video calls.

Now, all of this sounds amazing! But what do you need to get this awesome new feature? Smart Connect will work on any Lenovo PC that is running Windows 10 or later (through the Microsoft Store), and “select” Lenovo tablets and Motorola devices through the Google Play Store. Specific device compatibility has not yet been revealed, but more information will be shared before Smart Connect launches.

It obviously remains to be seen how all of this works in the real world, but if it all does what Motorola claims it does, Smart Connect could be worth getting excited about.

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Christine Romero-Chan
Christine Romero-Chan
Staff Writer, Mobile
Christine Romero-Chan has been writing about technology, specifically Apple, for over a decade. She graduated from California…
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