The biggest news this year from Apples software department was the intertwining of its iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite Operating Systems using two features called Handoff and Continuity. They both take great advantage of Apples tightly-controlled software experience by letting the user seamlessly move between a Mac, an iPhone and iPad, picking up where you left off. Your text messages get synced with your computer and iPad, and you can take calls that come to your iPhone on the other two devices. Transferring files wirelessly between these three devices is a breeze...

Now it all sounds hunky dory if youre singing to Apples tunes. But statistically speaking, there are more chances of you owning a Windows computer and an Android smartphone. My daily drivers are a Mac and an Android phone. So, how do you un-complicate your life by making these different platforms sync? Well, it may not deliver a beautiful experience like Apple products working together are supposed to, but here are a few use cases and the required apps that Ive found very useful to get it done:

1) Phone Calls

Theres an app called HandsFree for Mac that basically makes your phone think of your computer as a bluetooth headset. Ive been using this app for the past few days and although it hasnt been an entirely hiccup-free experience, it has worked for the most part.

My phone latches onto the Macbook the moment the lid is up. So not only can you receive phone calls on your computer, but theres a tiny app that sits in the menu bar that lets you dial from the Mac too. You can also look up contacts from the Macs address book (a good reason to sync them with your Google account if you havent already). In my testing, people could hear me well, but I needed to bump up the volume on my end to be able to hear clearly. Also, theres a bit of delay in relaying the voice over. Still, I dont mind these niggles for the convenience of picking up calls on my computer, which I spend most of my waking day staring into.

If youre a Windows PC user, good news, you dont even need a separate app. Theres a tutorial on how to pair a Windows 7 PC with a phone so that you can make & receive calls. The steps are a little different for Windows 8, but looking at the video, it shouldnt be too hard to figure out.

2) SMS Syncing:

There are many apps that allow you to sync text messages from an Android phone to a computer. Of the lot, I liked MightyText because its a browser plugin that shoots notifications on your computer when you get a text message; mighty useful when, say, youre making online transactions requiring a One Time Password (OTP) sent over SMS. You can also reply to messages right from that notification. Another nifty feature is the phone battery level notificationsit notifies when your phone is running low on charge and also when the battery is fully charged. You can see your entire SMS conversations in a web app on the browser.Not the best experience, but it gets the job done.

3) Universal Copy-Paste:

This has to be the most brilliant cross-device syncing Ive ever come across: Pushbullet is an app known for easily pushing files from one to many of your devices. You can also use Pushbullet to get all your phone notifications appear on your computer by using theAndroid app, and Chrome and Firefoxbrowser plugin. But whats moreuniversal copy & paste lets you copy any portion of text from one device and simply paste it in the other. It works in any text field on any app of your Android phone and on any computer. Check out the video below.

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How to: Syncing your computer & phone across platforms