Apple apps are coming to PCs, Microsoft says, as Music arrives on Xbox

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Apple is releasing a whole host of new apps on Windows, Microsoft has announced.

The companies were once dedicated rivals and mocked each other in television ads, but the latest announcement is just the latest move to bring the two closer together.

Windows users will now be able to open up the desktop versions of Apple TV and Apple Music apps, Microsoft said. They will be available to download through the Microsoft Store and will be released in early preview versions soon.

The two companies will also work together so that iCloud photos are available using the built-in Windows Photos app. That will mean that people are able to scroll through their photos stored on Apple’s servers just using the default app on Microsoft’s platform.

That is available in an early beta version now, for those on the Windows Insider programme. It should launch publicly in the next few months.

And all of those announcements came shortly after the Apple Music app arrived on Xbox.

That app is already available on Android, in a decision that marked a major change of policy at Apple.

Apple has recently looked to push onto other platforms, as part of a plan to focus on services as well as hardware. It has released its Apple TV app on a whole range of different operating systems that compete with its own Apple TV hardware, for instance, such as Samsung’s televisions.

Until now, users of Windows PCs have been force to navigate to the Apple TV website, or the same one for Apple Music, however. The new built-in apps should make using those services more easy.