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Microsoft brings LinkedIn, Translator apps to Huawei's Mate 10 Android phones

Microsoft's newest Android pal, Huawei, is making available customized versions of Microsoft's LinkedIn and Microsoft Translator apps as part of its new Mate 10 phones.
Written by Mary Jo Foley, Senior Contributing Editor

Samsung isn't the only Android phone maker for which Microsoft is building customized and integrated applications.

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This week, Microsoft also announced plans to bring special versions of LinkedIn and its Microsoft Translator apps to market for the Huawei Mate 10 series of Android phones.

Earlier this week, Microsoft announced that it was providing "an OS (operating system) level integration" of LinkedIn to all users of the new EMUI 8 interface on the Huawei Mate 10 flagship smartphones.

This level of integration "means that you can now connect your LinkedIn account to see the latest profile information about your professional contacts directly integrated into the native phone address book," according to the October 16 blog post announcing the partnership. Users who receive messages or phone calls have the option, because of the integration, to know where the person calling works and also the ability to see profile photos.

On October 19, Microsoft also announced a customized version of the Microsoft Translator app for Android for the Mate 10 series. Officials said Microsoft customized its AI technology for the Huawei's Kirin Neural Processing Unit (NPU) in the phones, resulting in better and faster offline translations for users of those phones. Microsoft execs said the offline Translation packs for these phones also are 50 percent smaller than the current Translation packs.

The Mate 10 phones also get the option of joining translated presentations using the Presentation Translator PowerPoint add-in.

As Microsoft continues its move away from its own Windows Phones and the Windows Mobile operating system, the company is stepping up its campaign to get more of its software and services on Android and iOS.

In March this year, Microsoft made available in its brick-and-mortar Microsoft Stores "Microsoft Editions" of the Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+. The Mate 10 phones don't seem to have the same "Microsoft Edition" branding.

Microsoft announced with great fanfare at CES in 2016 its "renewed partnership" with Samsung and took the wraps off a new Samsung Galaxy TabPro S with Windows 10 there. That announcement was preceded the year before by the settlement between Microsoft and Samsung over their longstanding Android patent-royalty suit.

Since 2015, Microsoft has been lining up OEMs to bundle various Office apps and services with their Android devices. As of May 2015, Microsoft claimed to have deals with 31 partners offering Android tablets pre-installed with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, OneDrive, and Skype. Samsung was one of the companies on that list; Huawei was not.

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