Link Your Cell to the Your Phone App
THE YOUR PHONE APP is a recent addition to Windows 10, but a powerful one. It enables you to use your Android cell phone closely with Windows 10, and works in tandem with an app on your smartphone. That app, Your Phone Companion, is available from the Google Play store for Android phones, and it’s that we’ll be using for the tutorial below.
If you have an iPhone, there isn’t a direct equivalent—Apple restricts other apps from controlling iOS, so it’s not possible to use an iPhone alongside Windows in the same way as it is with Android.
There is, however, a corresponding app in Apple’s App Store called Continue on PC—it enables you to sign in with your Microsoft account and send web links from your iPhone to your Windows PC. Your PC will appear as an option if you tap “Share.” –DAN GRABHAM
1 GET CONNECTED
To get started, you need to install the Your Phone app from the Windows Store. To set it up, you need to select the type of smartphone 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 then asks to text you a link to the Your Phone Companion app on the Google Play store [ Image A]. There’s no way around this, even if you’ve downloaded the app already. Make sure you select the right country for your smartphone. Then you can install the app on your Android phone in the usual way—the text link takes you directly to the app on Google Play, and installation is quick.
3 SIGN IN AND LINK
The Your Phone app then asks you to sign in (if Windows 10 isn’t already linked to a Microsoft account). On your smartphone, you’re asked to do exactly the same. Remember: You need to use the same Microsoft account on your smartphone as you’re using on your PC—this is how the two devices communicate. The linking process takes a couple of minutes.
4 VIEW YOUR PHOTOS
Once linked, you can see the content from your smartphone within the Your Phone app [ Image B]. You can browse recent photos—the last 25 are shown—and it’s a nice quick way to get your latest shots on to your computer. Note: They aren’t 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 SEND MESSAGES
It’s easy to send a message from your computer using the Your Phone app—just click “Messages” on the left and start typing a message in the bottom-right. You can add pictures, GIFs, or emojis [ Image C]. Your phone contacts should be synchronized with your PC, top-right, with other texts in the middle column. However, this didn’t work for us, even though everything else did.
6 CONFIGURE NOTIFICATIONS
If you tap “Notifications” on the left, you’ll almost certainly see this screen first [ Image D]— it requires you to send a notification to your phone to change a setting and grant permission. If you don’t do this, you can’t get notifications on your PC. It’s really not a hassle, although you might have to do it again if it doesn’t pop up the first time.
7 VIEW NOTIFICATIONS
Although these notifications pop up on your PC’s screen and are viewable within Action Center, you can also see the notifications that are shown on your phone screen [ Image E]. These include calendar alerts, new emails, WhatsApp messages, or other texts. You can fine-tune what is transferred to your PC using the Your Phone app’s settings (click in the bottom-left).
8 THE ANDROID APP
When you start the Android app [ Image F], you need to sign in with your Microsoft account. You also get other pop-ups—these ask for several permissions, so the app can get access to your phone’s photos, messages, contacts, and calls. If you deny these, the Your Phone app won’t work.
9 PAIR YOUR PHONE
To 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 [ Image G].
The Your Phone app then facilitates the calling aspect. We’re using a different phone here, because 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 [ Image H].