Apple has a very renowned so-called eco-system of its own. Its devices work in tandem so well that suppose say, what you’re currently doing on an iPhone can be seamlessly synced to your Mac or iPad. Android has a long way to achieve the level of harmony between an Android-powered smartphone and the most widely used PC operating system Windows. However, with the introduction of Your Phone Companion, things are going in the right direction, to say the least.
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Your Phone Companion app from Microsoft was designed with the prime objective of transferring media and files from Android to Windows with ease. The app lets the user do more than just transfer files. It enables them to manage/respond to calls, messages and notifications on their Android device. In this guide, we’ll show you, how to sync content between Android smartphone and Windows PC using the Your Phone Companion app.
Microsoft seems to be pushing the Your Phone Companion app for quite a while now, and we believe that they have their reasons. Now onto the guide. But before we proceed, make sure your setup meets the following.
Pre-requisites
- You need an Android device running on Android 7.0 (Nougat) or later.
- Make sure you’ve installed Your Phone Companion – Link to Windows app on your Android device. If not, you can download it from here.
- You’ll be needing Windows 10 April 2018 Update to use the service. However, we recommend that you install the latest Windows 10 update.
- Install Your Phone on your Windows machine from Microsoft Store. Please note that Your Phone app will come preinstalled if you have the Windows 10 October 2018 Update or later.
- Make sure that both the devices are connected to the same Wi-Fi network.
Link your devices
Follow these steps on each device to link them.
On Windows
- Open Your Phone app and sign in using your Microsoft Account.
- Select Android and click on Continue.
Note: Your Phone is an app that runs on your PC. It’s preinstalled in Windows 10 October 2018 Update (version 1809) and it’s available to download in Windows 10 April 2018 Update (version 1803) from Microsoft Store.
On Android
- Open Your Phone Companion app on your Android device. If you haven’t yet, install from Google Play Store.
- Sign in to the app using the same Microsoft Account you used to sign in to the Your Phone app.
- Once the above steps are over, the Android app will ask for necessary permissions, and battery optimization overrides. Allow all and your setup will be complete.
Start using the Your Phone App
The Your Phone app will display the details of your phone like the Phone’s photo with the set wallpaper, Battery level, Model number etc.
Below that, you’ll have multiple tabs like.
- Notifications: View and manage your phone’s notifications.
- Messages: You can send text messages without the need of touching your phone.
- Photos: View and manage Photos from your smartphone.
- Calls: Make and receive calls with your phone. This requires a Bluetooth connection with your phone.
View and manage photos on your phone
The app lets you view and manage your photos. It lets you.
- Open: Open the photo with the Photos app on Windows.
- Copy: Copy the image.
- Save As: Save the image to your Windows machine.
- Share: Share the image to external sources.
- More > Open with: Lets you open the photo with an app other than Photos.
Samsung smartphones can be used to do more with the Your Phone app. Like running your smartphone apps on your Windows machine or manage the clipboard of your smartphone. You can even effortlessly manage your reminders such that Samsung Reminders automatically sync with Microsoft To-Do and much more.
Hope you liked the Link2Windows feature and were able to have your Android phone synced to Windows with much ease.
Terry Ts