Phone Link for iOS Coming Soon to Windows 11 Devices -- Redmondmag.com

Phone Link for iOS Coming Soon to Windows 11 Devices

By Kurt Mackie
04/26/2023

Microsoft announced on Wednesday that Phone Link for iOS soon will be arriving on Windows 11 systems, with a completion date estimated for "mid-May."

Phone Link for iOS is a Windows 11 preinstalled app that lets iPhone users sync some aspects of their phones with their Windows 11 PCs. It allows them to use the PC to get call notifications, take calls, reply to messages (although group messaging is not supported) and see phone contacts. Users can also access photos taken with the iPhone from a Windows 11 PC.

Phone Link for iOS also will let users make calls from their Windows 11 PC even when their iPhones are still charging, per a FAQ at this page.

The Phone Link app comes with Windows 11 and has been available for Android-based phones "for quite some time," Microsoft noted. The Android version of Phone Link originally was called "Your Phone" or "Your Phone Companion," and dates back to 2018, according to this Microsoft support document description.

To use Phone Link for iOS, users will need an iPhone running "iOS 14 or higher," a Windows 11 device and the latest Phone Link app. Users will need a Bluetooth wireless connection to sync the phone with the PC. The synchronization gets established during the app's setup. Users will get prompted to scan a QR code using their phone to establish the synchronization.

Phone Link isn't available for use with an iPad device or a macOS device.

While Microsoft gave a "mid-May" estimated rollout date for Phone Link for iOS, Windows 11 users may already have the Phone Link app installed, which could be there to support Android devices. It's not clear how people will know that the preinstalled Phone Link app also is available to support iPhones.

About the Author

Kurt Mackie is senior news producer for 1105 Media's Converge360 group.

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