Video: Nokia Device Hub for Windows Phone 8.1

We all connect to tons of devices through our phone knowingly or unknowingly. This connection could be over Bluetooth for file transfer or to DLNA devices for video streaming or even with our PC over Wi-Fi.

Nokia introduced Device HUB  which allows you to centrally manage all your devices and interact with them through apps. This was rolled out as beta and in Windows Phone 8.1, with the Cyan Update, it will be available as one of the phone settings.

Once open, you will see two sections.

One is the list of devices which you have previously connected and second is a list of devices nearby you. The later section discovers devices around you using Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

How do you interact with devices?

This is an impressive implementation and you are going to love it. Lets say, you have your PC listed as one of the devices. Tap on it and you get to see the following details:

Overview:

This shows the status of the device along with list of apps that you can use to connect with the PC.

So for example, if you have the photobeamer app installed on the phone, you can see this listed.It is also possible to pin this device to start screen if you interact with it often.

Apps:

This section shows the list of apps that can interact with the device. For PC, it listed Remote Desktop, Office Remote, Team viewer and so on.

Interaction:

Tap on any of the apps and you can start using that as you use the app regularly. However the apps aren’t specific to the device all the time. So for example, if you launch the remote desktop app, you still need to go through the settings and connect to PC like you would have done using the app alone.

Location Sense:

Every device you connect with, the last location is registered with it. This helps you remember if it was your office or your home or anywhere else. Sadly there is no option to rename it as of now.

Video Demo: