Microsoft Making Sharing Files Between Android & PC Easier Than Before With Phone Link App

Clicking share on a file will now make a quick share window pop up which will display the user's Android phone which would be paired with the system at that time. 

Windows Preview Build also includes enhancements to the Windows Spotlight feature and fixes for known issues.

Source : Microsoft

Microsoft is on its way to enhance the Phone Link app which connects your Windows PC to your smartphone and lets users reply to text, receive and make calls and check their phone notifications directly from the computer. The app is on its way to becoming more streamlined as the company is rolling out the ability to quickly share content to an Android phone from a share window on a Windows PC. 

With the presence of this new feature, clicking share on a file will now make a quick share window pop up which will display the user's Android phone which would be paired with the system at that time. 

As per Microsoft, if users want to use this new feature then they must have their smartphone paired to their Windows PC by utilising the Link to Windows app on Android and Phone Link on their PC. Only the Android smartphones which have been paired will show up in the share window. On a side note, there is still no certainty about the feature's extension to iPhones.

At the moment, if you right-click on a file on Windows and select the Share option then the share window will appear on your screen with the option to quickly send the file to your email contacts or share it via the Nearby Share feature or other applications.

The arrival of this feature was announced as part of the updates that are being rolled out to the Beta Channel with Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.3785. It might take some time for these features to arrive in our systems. 

What Other Improvements Were Announced

The Preview Build also includes enhancements to the Windows Spotlight feature and fixes for known issues. The update aims to simplify changing images and engaging with the Windows Spotlight experience on the desktop.

Windows supports file sharing between Android devices and PCs through the cross-device copy-and-paste feature within the Phone Link app. This feature is currently available only on Surface Duo and select Samsung, Honor, Oppo, and Asus devices.

Additionally, a Windows Central report last month suggested that the Phone Link app on Windows would soon introduce a new optical character recognition (OCR) feature, allowing users to copy text from images.