Owners of Samsung’s Galaxy S6, S7, and S8 smartphones can now use their fingerprint scanners to unlock their Windows 10 PCs and laptops.

The functionality arrives via an update to Samsung Flow, an app designed to let users easily transition between devices by syncing apps. For example, a user can easily switch from Twitter or SoundCloud on a smartphone to a PC without losing where she was in a feed or a track. Now, the app has integrated support for Windows Hello, the biometric security platform of Microsoft’s Windows 10 operating system.

The functionality adds another, widely available solution to Windows Hello’s longstanding hardware problem: While the security platform has undoubtedly helped to further popularize biometric authentication, a relatively small proportion of devices running the OS have the embedded fingerprint sensor or facial recognition technology to let users take advantage of it. A lot of people have Samsung Galaxy devices, though, and many of them could be eager to sync them up for better security.

It could also be a first step toward even stronger biometric security for Windows 10 users if developers take advantage of the Samsung Galaxy S8’s iris scanning capability, which is already being used to facilitate payment confirmation through Samsung Pay.

Source: The Verge