Microsoft is creating greater synergy between a Windows PC and a smartphone, allowing users to respond to texts, make and receive calls, and check their phone notifications right from their computer. The Phone Link app on the PC, which syncs both Android phones and iPhones with Windows, also lets users share files between devices. Windows now makes sharing files from a PC to Android more streamlined.
Windows sharing feature
As part of the new Windows Insider PreviewMicrosoft is rolling out the ability to quickly share content to an Android phone from a sharing pane on a Windows PC. With the feature, clicking share on a file now displays a quick sharing pane that shows the user’s Android phone paired with the PC.
Paired Android phones are displayed in the share pane
Photo Credit: Microsoft
According to Microsoft, users will need to pair their smartphone with their Windows PC using the Link to Windows app on Android and Phone Link on their PC for the feature to work. Only paired Android smartphones will appear in the sharing panel, and there’s no indication yet whether the feature will extend to iPhone.
Currently, when you right-click a file in Windows and select Share, the share pane opens, giving you the option to quickly send the file to your email contacts or share it via the Share Nearby feature or other applications.
The feature was announced as part of updates rolling out to the Beta Channel with Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.3785. It may take some time before these features are generally available to all Windows 11 users.
Windows 11 Preview Build
Other improvements being tested with the Preview Build include tweaks to the Windows Spotlight feature, along with other fixes for known issues. The update makes it easier for users to change images and interact with the Windows Spotlight experience on the desktop.
Windows allows users to share files between Android devices and PCs via copy and paste across multiple devices feature in the Phone Link app. However, the feature is only available on Surface Duo and select Samsung, Honor, Oppo, and Asus devices.
Last month, Windows Central reported that the Phone Link app on Windows would soon get a new optical character recognition (OCR) feature that would allow users to copy text from images.
