Samsung Flow

[TylerLV76]

I tried this on my Dell Latitude E7440 at work and after enabling TPM module in the BIOS (UEFI), and then activating it (also in the BIOS, available only after you first enable TPM), I was able to install the Samsung Flow Driver and the application. I was able to pair my device but now I am stuck again. Samsung is requiring me to have a Windows PIN and my organizational policy requires passwords and does not allow PIN. I cannot continue past this point because of this. Very weak implementation by Samsung. Why would I want to reduce the security on my machine from a password to a PIN? It's crazy. It should just work with a password.

I'm not home so can't check now but do you need to actually use the pin or just have one designated? On my work pc I have a pin set up but I use a password.

At home I use a pin.

 

[eric002]

I'm not home so can't check now but do you need to actually use the pin or just have one designated? On my work pc I have a pin set up but I use a password.

At home I use a pin.

I'm going to try this method in a second and see if it works. As far as a group policy on your laptop which is a secure VPN, unfortunately you might have worse luck. Company might not want to give you a pin.

 

[TylerLV76]

I'm going to try this method in a second and see if it works. As far as a group policy on your laptop which is a secure VPN, unfortunately you might have worse luck. Company might not want to give you a pin.

Im lucky in this aspect as its my company and I handle the network. I dont have an issue having a pin as long as I can use the password still. Although I guess it doesnt mattersince if someone wants to get access using my pin they can just click "use pin" on the welcome screen.

Thats going to be interesting. Im sure I can find some hack to disable the pin option on the welcome screen if need be.

 

[eric002]

Im lucky in this aspect as its my company and I handle the network. I dont have an issue having a pin as long as I can use the password still. Although I guess it doesnt mattersince if someone wants to get access using my pin they can just click "use pin" on the welcome screen.

Thats going to be interesting. Im sure I can find some hack to disable the pin option on the welcome screen if need be.

Well, unfortunately, I just went into the BIOS on my laptop and I can't find a TPM module to an able. I'm going to try to reconfigure and set everything up one more time but if it didn't work the first few times just not going to work this time unfortunately.

 

[Jnorton2724]

is this just for notifications?

 

[eric002]

The flow applications supposed to be for notifications and to reply back to text messages from your PC. I can't get it to work. And like I said I've tried many many times to download and install the application on both phone and PC just doesn't work on my Windows 10 laptop.

 

[Jnorton2724]

The flow applications supposed to be for notifications and to reply back to text messages from your PC. I can't get it to work. And like I said I've tried many many times to download and install the application on both phone and PC just doesn't work on my Windows 10 laptop.

Install Cortana on your Galaxy S8 and turn on sync notifications. That's the easiest way to get text messages and other notifications from any Android phone to a windows 10 PC. You can receive and reply to the notifications as well.

 

[eric002]

Well, I'll give that a shot. Thank you.

 

[dejanh]

Okay so I found out that I can in fact use a PIN in my company. It was just disabled by default since it is a domain account. I followed the instructions provided here PIN Sign-in disabled when System is joined to Domain to get the PIN going and I successfully set it up. Everything is in place now for Samsung Flow to work, however, I still cannot get it to work. I pair my device with my computer via Bluetooth and the device appears in the list of paired devices. On the phone I cannot see an "active" connection to the PC (typically active Bluetooth connections are highlighted in teal/blue) but whatever, the software reports that it is paired. When I get to the "Register Device" screen where it is supposed to prompt me for a PIN it instead tries to reconnect the Bluetooth connection between the phone and PC and it is just perpetually stuck there, prompting to confirm connection over and over again. It never prompts for the PIN. I think it never actually connects the Bluetooth either, at least not from a Samsung Flow perspective.

 

[eric002]

Yeah that's a bit weird. Honestly, unfortunately I just can't do it on my PC. Try to get into the BIOS and then they able the drivers there not there so it just doesn't work on my PC. Good luck to you and getting flow to work for your S8 your work laptop though!

 

[dejanh]

Got it to work now, finally. I had to allow companion devices to unlock PC. I had to use the following instructions to do it:
Run > gpedit.msc then Local Computer Policy, navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Microsoft Secondary Authentication Factor and set explicitly to Enabled

I also had to uninstall the Flow app, install latest copy of version 1 first, re-pair the device with the computer, then upgrade to the latest version of the Flow app (version 2), and then re-authenticate Bluetooth again and it finally prompted me for my pin and registered the device.

This whole thing definitely needs work. You pretty much need an IT degree to figure it out. It took me nearly 3 hours from start to finish. I also have a feeling that if I tried to do this again it would not work the same way. Let's see if it stays stable for now.

 

[eric002]

Got it to work now, finally. I had to allow companion devices to unlock PC. I had to use the following instructions to do it (Run > gpedit.msc then Local Computer Policy, navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Microsoft Secondary Authentication Factor and set explicitly to Enabled). I also had to uninstall the Flow app, install the old version first, repair the device with the computer, then upgrade to the latest version of the Flow app, and then re-authenticate Bluetooth again and it finally prompted me for my pin and registered the device. This whole thing definitely needs work. You pretty much need an IT degree to figure it out. I also have a feeling that if I tried to do this again it would not work the same way. Let's see if it stays stable for now.

Hey congratulations to you dude!! That's awesome! Yeah you need an IT degree just a freaking figure out how to use Samsung flow in general as a custom piece of software. I mean don't get me wrong I'm very very good with phones and computers and I'm in the networking it field myself and trying to figure this out and figure out that it doesn't work on my PC is not only frustrating but it's also very annoying too! Considering I got transferred to three different Samsung where up in the course of 10 minutes on the phone this morning! Regardless though, I'm happy that you got it to work for you

 

[dejanh]

Hey congratulations to you dude!! That's awesome! Yeah you need an IT degree just a freaking figure out how to use Samsung flow in general as a custom piece of software. I mean don't get me wrong I'm very very good with phones and computers and I'm in the networking it field myself and trying to figure this out and figure out that it doesn't work on my PC is not only frustrating but it's also very annoying too! Considering I got transferred to three different Samsung where up in the course of 10 minutes on the phone this morning! Regardless though, I'm happy that you got it to work for you

I will be honest that the end result is pretty underwhelming. SideSync is significantly more powerful than Samsung Flow. The unlock process is cool but not practical. It is actually slower than typing in a PIN since you have to get to your lock screen on the PC, press spacebar, then scan fingerprint on the device. If the screen on the device is off, first it is the device unlocks, then Samsung Flow has to re-connect on the phone, and then finally it scans your fingerprint to unlock the PC. Overall, I can probably unlock 3 times with a pin or password in the time it takes to do one FP scan via Samsung Flow integration. Notifications are weak as well. You cannot see the full content of the notification, only partial. Only Samsung native apps can reply via the notifications, where as in SideSync you can actually view the full app UI and use any app. The only thing that seems easy is the hotspot. Hotspot integration is both quick and easy.

In all, now that I have gotten it to work I wish I could take back 2.5h of my time. It's just cool for unlocking but overall pretty useless.

 

[eric002]

I will be honest that the end result is pretty underwhelming. SideSync is significantly more powerful than Samsung Flow. The unlock process is cool but not practical. It is actually slower than typing in a PIN since you have to get to your lock screen on the PC, press spacebar, then scan fingerprint on the device. If the screen on the device is off, first it is the device unlocks, then Samsung Flow has to re-connect on the phone, and then finally it scans your fingerprint to unlock the PC. Overall, I can probably unlock 3 times with a pin or password in the time it takes to do one FP scan via Samsung Flow integration. Notifications are weak as well. You cannot see the full content of the notification, only partial. Only Samsung native apps can reply via the notifications, where as in SideSync you can actually view the full app UI and use any app. The only thing that seems easy is the hotspot. Hotspot integration is both quick and easy.

In all, now that I have gotten it to work I wish I could take back 2.5h of my time. It's just cool for unlocking but overall pretty useless.

Thank you VERY much for suggesting the sidesync option. Didn't even realize that existed! I am trying that right now! I'm glad you got it to work for yourself, but thank you also for your honesty!

 

[11B1P]

Its built into your galaxy book from the get go. Has been for months.

Hmm, that's odd. According to this, I don't have it installed.

 

[TylerLV76]

Hmm, that's odd. According to this, I don't have it installed.

View attachment 263162

Flow. It's built in to galaxy books.

 

[eric002]

The SideSync app that another user suggested in a few prior posts works perfectly. I tried it before and it's exceptional. I did uninstall it only because I guess I really don't need to see notifications from my phone on my laptop but nevertheless, it works beautifully!

 

[11B1P]

Flow. It's built in to galaxy books.

The screenshot was in reference to the Creators Update. When I clicked through showing me how to get the update, I found that I wasn't on the most current update. I dunno, maybe this update is installing the Creators Update now.

 

[TylerLV76]

The screenshot was in reference to the Creators Update. When I clicked through showing me how to get the update, I found that I wasn't on the most current update. I dunno, maybe this update is installing the Creators Update now.

The creators update is only necessary for traditional pc's apprently. You won't need it to use flow because Samsung baked the app in. There's something in the creators update that flow needs to work from what I can tell since it won't install without the update.

Honestly the whole things a mess. The creator update is failing on alot of pc's and if you can install it you still gotta have unknown options to allow flow to run. I've given up on my work pc. Samsung needs to update the requirements and installation steps.

 

[erasat]

Okay so I found out that I can in fact use a PIN in my company. It was just disabled by default since it is a domain account. I followed the instructions provided here PIN Sign-in disabled when System is joined to Domain to get the PIN going and I successfully set it up. Everything is in place now for Samsung Flow to work, however, I still cannot get it to work. I pair my device with my computer via Bluetooth and the device appears in the list of paired devices. On the phone I cannot see an "active" connection to the PC (typically active Bluetooth connections are highlighted in teal/blue) but whatever, the software reports that it is paired. When I get to the "Register Device" screen where it is supposed to prompt me for a PIN it instead tries to reconnect the Bluetooth connection between the phone and PC and it is just perpetually stuck there, prompting to confirm connection over and over again. It never prompts for the PIN. I think it never actually connects the Bluetooth either, at least not from a Samsung Flow perspective.

That's exactly where I'm at since Friday that I've been trying to make this to work, after checking all my Domain group policy and Active Directory settings (I'm the IT Manager) I realized yesterday that is something else and not because of the Domain registration. Everything needed on the Local group policy and the Domain is on and is still fails exactly where yours is failing so I just gave up getting on my brand new HP Envy All In One 27" with Windows 10 Pro and latest Creative updates.

I even tried on my Samsung ATIV BOOK 2017 and it's even worse, it doesn't even let me pair with the phone, the pair button is grayed out and no matter what I do it doesn't change.

The tech guy on me made me try for a couple of days but then I thought that it really is not that new or even great addition. Besides the native Bluetooth Hotspot, there is nothing else that I'm not doing already with Samsung Sidesync.