Microsoft is planning to release a special phone companion app for Windows 10 that's designed to convince smartphone owners to bridge the gap between their handset and PC. The software maker is clearly hoping that its new companion app will convince iPhone and Android phone owners to install a number of apps and services on their devices. Once installed on a Windows 10 PC, the phone companion app works like a hub to direct phone owners to download apps like Skype, OneDrive, OneNote, Outlook, Office, Xbox Music, and even the recently announced Cortana app.

It doesn’t appear to enable any specific features that sync a phone and PC because all of the separate apps it points to are designed with that in mind. OneNote syncs notes across Windows, Android, and iOS already, and the various Office apps are also designed to sync documents through OneDrive. Microsoft appears to be using this hub as a way to advertise these apps to people who will be buying Windows 10 PCs later this year and might not necessarily be aware of the various features and apps available across mobile platforms.

The phone companion app will be released as part of Microsoft’s Windows 10 Insider Preview "in a few weeks," meaning a new build is on the way soon. Microsoft recently enabled Xbox One game streaming testing in Windows 10, but the full feature isn’t available just yet. With E3 a few weeks away, it’s likely we’ll see both the phone companion and game streaming enabled at a similar point in the Windows 10 preview process. Microsoft is still planning to release Windows 10 as a free upgrade for Windows 7 and Windows 8 users this summer.