How to use Phone Link to connect an Android phone to a Windows computer?

About four years ago, Microsoft announced "Your Phone," an app that seamlessly connected your Windows PC to your Android phone, allowing you to share content between the two devices. , calls and notifications, and easily switch between them. A few weeks ago, the company renamed the app "Phone Link," and today's tutorial will walk you through how to use Phone Link to connect your Android smartphone to a Windows 10 or Windows 11 PC.

It is important to note that in order to take advantage of this feature, the Phone Link app should be installed on your Windows PC and the "Link to Windows" app should be installed on your Android phone. Although Phone Link supports Android 7.0 or higher smartphones, but it offers tighter integration with Samsung, Surface Duo and Honor phones. In fact, the notification panel of my Samsung Galaxy A51 already has a dedicated button for linking to Windows and apps installed by default.

This tutorial uses screenshots from Windows 10, but it should work exactly the same on Windows 11 as well. With that out of the way, let’s get started!

1. Make sure you have the Link to Windows app installed on your Android 7.0 or higher smartphone
2. Make sure you have Phone Link installed on your Windows 10 or Windows 11 PC
3. Make sure both of your devices are relatively close and connected to the same Wi-Fi network
4. Launch both apps on their respective devices and use your Microsoft login When prompted Account
5. will now ask you to pair your device, check the "I've linked to a Windows app" toggle, this will enable the two options at the bottom as shown below:
   

   

6. You can choose "Pair with QR code" or "Manual pairing". I chose the latter, which essentially generates a 9-digit PIN and then requires you to enter the same password in the Phone Link app, like this:
   

   

7. After you complete this, it will take a few seconds to establish the connection. Once connected successfully, you will be asked to grant permissions to your phone to allow access to photos, calls, and other content that can be accessed through Phone Link. Grant permissions accordingly.
8. After completing granting permissions, you will be presented with the following screen; if you do not plan to use Phone Link regularly, you can choose to uncheck this option:
   

   

9. Now you can use your Windows PC to view messages, make calls, use apps, stream your phone screen, and more. It's important to note that some of these features require powerful hardware and software. For example, in order to stream your phone's screen, drag and drop content, and access all apps, you'll need at least Android 11 on your Surface Duo, Samsung, or Honor phone and at least 8GB of RAM on your PC. Likewise, making a call from your PC (screenshot below) requires you to first establish a connection between the two devices via Bluetooth:
   

   

10. Use on PC Once Phone Link is complete, simply close the application on your PC and close the Link to Windows application on your phone.

That's what it's all about. I want to stress that Phone Link's usefulness depends heavily on your workflow. For example, I don't see the need to connect my phone to my PC to stream apps or make calls since my phone is almost always next to my laptop anyway. Likewise, to transfer content, I just grab a USB-C cable sitting on my desk and the content can be migrated with relative ease. However, Phone Link may be useful for those who don't always have their phone handy or who prefer to focus on a single screen (i.e. their PC) while working.

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