Intel Unison is shutting down, but I'm using this app instead

Remember Intel Unison? A couple of years ago, Intel bought a company called Screenovate, who developed Dell Mobile Connect — an app for linking your phone to your PC. This resulted in Intel Unison, which was basically the same concept, but more widely available. As it turns out, that concept wasn't appealing enough, because Intel is shutting down Unison very soon — at the end of this month, in fact. Only Lenovo Aura PCs will be supported after that.

However, that's not really a problem for me. If you've been around the Android scene for a while, you probably already know about AirDroid, and if you haven't, let me tell you why you should have been using it all along. AirDroid does (almost) everything Intel Unison did, but it also does a lot more. So let's take a closer look.

Sync messages and notifications

It's all there

One of the core features of Intel Unison is the ability to see your text messages and notifications on your PC, and I'm happy to say, the AirDroid app does this just as well, too. Your message history shows up just as it would on your phone, and you can easily send and receive texts. You can also manage your notifications, and they'll pop up on your desktop to get your attention, too, though you can't interact with the underlying apps.

AirDroid also lets you see your call logs and contacts, as well as dial a number, but you can't actually make a call through your PC, which is a bit of a shame. To be fair, I wouldn't use this feature anyway because I don't trust my PC's microphone the same way I trust my phone's, but I know some might be upset by this limitation. But if you're just worried about missing a call, AirDroid will show you notifications for calls, so you can then pick up your phone and answer it.

Manage more than photos

Access all your files

Being able to see photos from your phone was another big feature of Intel Unison, but AirDroid is much better in this regard. For one thing, the photo manager is more organized. Instead of a continuous stream of photos on your device, AirDroid organizes them by date, so you can more easily jump into a specific date to find a photo from that time, instead of carefully combing through dozens of images to find the right one.

But that pales in comparison to the other big benefit: you can manage much more than your photos. AirDroid makes pretty much all the user-accessible folders on your phone visible to your PC, and you can browse them in full, find your files, copy them to your PC, or move files from your PC into your phone from your PC. There's also a more seamless file transfer feature where you can send files and messages between your connected devices, but being able to do it all from this built-in file browser makes things much easier, since you can organize your files into the correct folders from the get-go, instead of downloading them and then moving them as needed.

If that wasn't enough, AirDroid even offers a backup option that will automatically upload photos and videos from your phone to your connected PC. You can choose the folders to backup and the target PC (if you have multiple), and you can set backups to run automatically as long as your battery level is high enough. It really makes things very convenient, and it's a clever use of the connection between your devices. After all, why should you have to manually move your files over?

Screen mirroring is here, too

And you can even control your phone

Finally, AirDroid has some cool extra features that let you use your phone from your PC. One of these is screen mirroring, which lets you see your phone screen on your PC, as well as an option to view your camera. Now, I personally don't find these options all too useful. Screen mirroring by itself isn't that interesting if you can't control your phone, and the camera view would be interesting if you could use your phone as a webcam, but as it stands, the best you could do is use your phone as a kind of surveillance camera.

However, AirDroid does offer remote control for your Android phone, though it's a separate feature from the screen mirroring option. The streaming quality isn't particularly high, and there's a bit of a delay, but at least the option is there, and it's usable in a pinch if you need to use your phone but don't want to move your focus from your PC.

There's also an option to use your computer's keyboard to enter text on your phone, which you could use in tandem with the screen control feature to open websites or send messages in different apps. On its own, this feature is strange since you can use the keyboard but not see what's being typed, so it really only makes sense while using the general remote control.

There's a premium version

You'll need it for remote access

If you're planning to use your PC to access your phone that's on a different network — for example, if you want to use your phone as a surveillance camera back home, you'll need to pay for AirDroid premium, which starts at $2.50 per month. I don't find this worth it, as most of the time I would use Intel Unison is when I have these devices next to each other anyway. The premium version unlocks less restrictive limits for file transfers, and enables some extra features to work remotely, but the functionality that works over local wireless doesn't have significant limitations if you use the free version.

It's also worth noting that while I use AirDroid for desktop to provide a more integrated and seamless experience, you can also use AirDroid Web on your PC in a pinch, which supports many of the same features.

Either way, AirDroid is a very capable app, and if you're going to miss Intel Unison and you're also not convinced by Microsoft's Phone Link (and I wouldn't blame you for that), this is a great option to have. It would be cool to get features like a virtual webcam, but maybe that will be coming in the future. You can check out AirDroid below and get started connecting your phone to your PC.