Latest news with #PhoneLink
Android Authority
17-05-2025
- Android Authority
It just got way easier to control your Android phone from your Windows PC
Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority TL;DR Microsoft is enhancing Windows 11 by adding a dedicated Phone Link panel to the start menu for easier Android device management. This new panel provides quick access to your phone's status, messages, calls, photos, and recent activity directly from the start menu. It also includes a 'send files' button for seamless file transfers and shortcuts to the main Phone Link app and relevant settings. If you want to control your Android phone from a Windows PC, there's no better tool than Microsoft's Phone Link. To get started, simply open the Phone Link app on your Windows PC and download the Link to Windows companion app on your Android phone. Follow the setup guide, and you'll soon be displaying your phone's notifications, text messages, photos, and more directly on your PC. Repeatedly opening the Phone Link app on your PC to access your phone's content can be cumbersome, so Microsoft is rolling out an update to the Windows 11 start menu that adds a dedicated Phone Link panel. Located to the right of the Windows 11 start menu, the Phone Link panel offers a quick glance at your device's status, including its connection status and battery level. It also features buttons for Messages, Calls, and Photos, providing direct access to your text messages, call history, and image gallery within the main Phone Link app. Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority Below this, the 'Recent' section displays your most recent phone calls, text messages, and images. While it doesn't show recent notifications directly, you can configure these to appear as banners in the bottom right corner of your screen. Similarly, your most recently opened apps aren't listed here, but you can quickly access them by clicking the Phone Link icon in the system tray. (As a reminder, Phone Link can stream Android apps to your Windows 11 PC, though this feature is limited to certain devices.) Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority Finally, a prominent 'send files' button sits at the bottom of the Phone Link panel. Clicking this opens a new window where you can either drag and drop files or use the 'select files' option to browse and choose files via File Explorer. Adjacent to the 'send files' button, a context menu provides shortcuts to: open the main Phone Link app; access settings to customize which recent activities the panel displays; and open Windows 11's general start menu settings. Microsoft is gradually rolling out the Phone Link panel to the start menu on all Windows 11 PCs. I received it on my PC (running Windows 11 version 26100.4061) today, though the rollout to users on the stable channel has been underway for at least the past week. This feature was available to Windows Insiders in the Beta and Dev channels for several months, so it's good to see Microsoft finally bringing it to everyone on the latest stable release of Windows 11. Got a tip? Talk to us! Email our staff at Email our staff at news@ . You can stay anonymous or get credit for the info, it's your choice.
News18
07-05-2025
- News18
Microsoft Will Soon Bring A New Start Menu And AI Agents With Windows 11 Update
Last Updated: Windows 11 start menu is getting a design overhaul and Microsoft is bringing AI agents to more products for users. Microsoft is bringing a major update for Windows 11, which finally gives us the new, redesigned Start Menu, along with AI agents, Phone Link integration, and several new AI features. As you might expect, some of these functionalities will be exclusive to the Copilot+ PC users that includes the latest models launched in the last 6 to 10 months in the market. According to reports, the company has yet to announce the official rollout date for the update. The new version is currently being tested by Windows Insiders on Snapdragon X Copilot Plus PCs, which includes the new Surface tablets from Microsoft. A New Start The redesigned Start menu, first unveiled last month in an early preview release, is noticeably larger than previous versions. It offers quicker, scrollable access to the 'All Apps" view, now organised by categories for easier navigation. Additionally, the menu introduces three distinct views for the all-apps list, now positioned at the bottom of the main Start menu page for enhanced accessibility. The three views include a standard list view, a new grid list view, and a category view, which automatically organises installed apps into 'folders" similar to the App Shelf found on iOS and iPadOS. The new Windows 11 update will also have a new phone companion panel, giving quick access to recent contacts, messages, calls, battery level and more on both iPhone or Android phone linked to the PC. In its blog post, Microsoft states that the AI features are intended to 'make our experiences more intuitive, more accessible and ultimately more useful." Users will soon be able to rely on an on-device AI assistant to adjust Windows settings or troubleshoot common issues, like resizing a mouse cursor. In File Explorer, right-clicking on a file will now reveal new 'Click to Do"-style shortcuts, including options to edit photos or generate text summaries before opening the file. The Photos app is set to get a new Relight feature, which allows users to add up to three positional light sources to an image. Meanwhile, the Paint app will introduce a content-aware selection tool for drag-and-drop editing, erasing, and generative fill, along with the ability to create digital stickers from text prompts. The Snipping Tool is also getting major upgrades. New features include Perfect Screenshot, which automatically crops to the most important content, text extraction from images and screenshots, and an eyedropper tool to sample on-screen colours. These updates will first roll out to Windows on ARM devices that are powered by the Snapdragon X processors, while the Intel and AMD version will get them later this year. First Published:
Yahoo
05-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Intel discontinues Unison app for connecting PCs and smartphones
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Since Apple connected its PCs with smartphones and tablets using its MacOS and iOS operating systems to provide a seamless user experience some 10 to 15 years ago, multiple attempts have been made to replicate similar capabilities with Windows-based PCs. One such attempt is Intel's Unison app, which was released in early 2022 and will be discontinued this June, reports Neowin. "Intel Unison will soon be discontinued," reads a statement by Intel in Apple's AppStore, Google's PlayStore, and Microsoft's Store. "The first step in its wind-down process is ending service for most platforms at the end of June 2025. Lenovo Aura platforms will retain service through 2025." Intel's Unison allows users to make phone calls, send text messages, get notifications, and transfer files and photos between Android and iOS handsets and Windows 11 PCs. The app is a part of Intel's Evo program to improve the user experience with premium Windows 11 PCs running its 12th-Gen Core processors or newer. However, the company no longer sees the app as one of its competitive advantages. Intel did not disclose why it decided to discontinue its Unison app. Perhaps this is a part of the company's broader cost-cutting strategy, and if so, we could see Intel dropping support for other software efforts in the coming months. Recently, Lip-Bu Tan, Intel's new chief executive, said that the company planned to can or spin off operations that no longer fit its core strategy, and apps like Unison barely do. While it certainly improves the user experience with Intel-based PCs, it is not an exclusive app, and maintaining a large fleet of software costs money that Intel wants to preserve for developing its core products. This is perhaps because Intel's Unison is not a unique app, as multiple programs connect smartphones with Windows PCs. Microsoft offers Phone Link, and Samsung has its own version called Flow. Dell has tried to offer its own Mobile Connect app, but it did not work flawlessly with iPhones, so it discontinued it somewhere along the line, clearing the road for Intel's Unison and Microsoft's Phone Link. Although Intel's Unison could be a fine app, Microsoft's Phone Link has better compatibility as it works with virtually all PCs running Windows 10.
Yahoo
10-03-2025
- Yahoo
Microsoft just made Teams even more of a hassle to use
In a Microsoft support article, the software giant says that starting in April 2025, Microsoft Teams will no longer support sending or receiving SMS from Android devices. This change pushes users to switch to the Phone Link app for SMS messaging. If you attempt to send an SMS using Teams, you'll be greeted with an alert notifying you of the change. The SMS feature is one of the lesser-known features, and you may not have even known it existed, but Microsoft will soon remove it from Teams. For now, you can still view SMS messages under Recent and send texts, but this feature will soon be removed. Currently, the 'Link your phone' feature lets you manage your text messages without having to switch to another app, thus making you go through fewer steps. With Skype shutting down soon, some users may turn to Teams as an alternative, meaning that Teams might be getting a bigger audience. But now, new users will be greeted with the need to use the Phone Link app to do something they could once do on Teams. You can use the feature on a Windows 11 PC and any Android device with version 7.0 or above. You will also need the Link to Windows app, but if your Android device has version 9.0 or later, it should be preinstalled. It's not that bad since the Phone Link app is helpful. You can view your phone battery level, your pictures, and more. Using another app may seem inconvenient, but switching to Phone Link could be beneficial.
Yahoo
10-03-2025
- Yahoo
Microsoft Teams to End SMS Integration in April 2025, Recommends Phone Link App
Microsoft Teams will soon stop letting users send and receive SMS messages from their Android phones directly within the app. This change will take place in April 2025. Microsoft recommends that users switch to the Phone Link app for this feature instead. Currently, Microsoft Teams lets users sync their Android SMS messages to the Chats section under Recent. This option lets users view and respond to text messages directly from their Windows 11 PC without needing to pick up their phone. The feature is called "Link your phone" and works without the Phone Link app, as reported by Windows Latest. To use this option, users need a Windows 11 PC and an Android phone running version 7.0 or newer. After downloading the "Link to Windows" app from the Play Store, they can link their phone to Teams by scanning a QR code generated in the Teams settings. Once linked, SMS messages appear alongside Teams chats, letting users manage everything in one place. Microsoft has started showing alerts in Teams that say support for SMS integration will end in April 2025. A statement from the company confirms this change and advises users to switch to the Phone Link app for the same. The Phone Link app already lets users view and respond to SMS messages on their Windows PC.
