HOW TO Android and Windows in harmony

1 GET CONNECTED Once you’ve installed the Your Phone app from the Windows Store – to set up, select the type of phone you want to use with the app – as we said earlier, we’re concentrating on the Android experience because using the app with an iPhone only gives you the basic option of sharing information from your phone to your PC. So we’re clicking Android here, then Continue.

2 GET THE APP LINK The Your Phone app will then ask to text you a link to the Your Phone Companion app on the Google Play store. There’s no way round this even if you’ve downloaded it already! Make sure you select the right country for your phone. Then install the app on your Android phone in the usual way – the text link will take you directly to the app on Google Play and installation is quick.

3 SIGN IN AND LINK Your Phone will then ask you to sign in (if Windows 10 isn’t already linked to a Microsoft account). On your phone, you’ll be asked to do exactly the same. You can see what the app looks like in step 8. Remember you need to use the same Microsoft account on your phone as you’re using on your PC – it’s how the devices communicate. The linking process will take a couple of minutes

4 VIEW YOUR PHOTOS Once linked, you can see the content from your phone within the Your Phone app. You can browse recent photos – the last 25 are shown – and it’s a nice quick way to get your latest shots onto your computer. They won’t be saved on your computer by default – Your Phone isn’t a backup tool like camera uploads in the OneDrive or Dropbox apps, for example.

5 SENDING MESSAGES It’s easy to send a message from your PC using the Your Phone app – just click on Messages on the left and start typing a message in the bottom right. You can add pictures, GIFs or – as shown here – emojis. Your phone contacts should be synchronised top right, with other texts in the middle column. However, this didn’t work for us, even if everything else did.

6 CONFIGURE NOTIFICATIONS If you tap on Notifications on the left you’ll almost certainly see this screen at first – it requires you to send a notification to your phone to change a setting and grant permission. If you don’t do this, you won’t be able to get notifications on your PC. It’s really not a hassle to do, although you might have to do it again if it doesn’t pop up the first time. Once done, it’s done.

7 VIEW NOTIFICATIONS Although these notifications will pop-up on your PC’s screen and be viewable within Action Centre, you can also see the notifications that are shown on your phone screen. These include calendar alerts, new emails, WhatsApp messages or other texts. You can fine tune what is transferred across to your PC using the Your Phone app’s settings (click in the bottom left).

8 THE ANDROID APP This is what the Android app looks like. When you start it, you’ll need to sign in with your Microsoft account. You’ll also get other pop-ups which is why we’re showing it here – the first is that the app will ask for several permissions so it can get access to your phone’s photos, messages, contacts and calls. If you deny these, the Your Phone app won’t be able to work.

9 PAIR YOUR PHONETo make calls through your phone using your Windows 10 PC, you need to go a step further and pair your phone with your PC using Bluetooth. The Your Phone app then facilitates the calling aspect. We’re using a different phone here, as our previous phone was already paired, so we’re showing the process of pairing a new phone.

10 READY FOR CALLING You pair your phone using a number that’s shown on-screen – it should match the number shown on your phone. You may also get a notification asking you to accept the pair request, and the nature of this notification seems to vary depending on the phone being used. If you have problems, you can pair your phone using Bluetooth settings in the main Windows 10 Settings app. TL