The ‘Your Phone‘ app from Microsoft, depending on the type of smartphone, allows you to connect your phone and PC to unlock experiences between devices (Android and iPhone), view recent phone photos on your PC, view and send SMS from your PC or send web pages from your phone to your PC.
Microsoft on Windows 10 PC offers the “Your Phone” app which, depending on the type of connected mobile phone, allows you to connect your phone and PC to unlock experiences between devices (Android and iPhone), view recent photos of your phone on your PC (Android only), view and send SMS from your PC (Android only). In beta, you can also see your smartphone screen on your PC and receive smartphone notifications on your PC. If you have an iPhone, you can use the Your Phone app to connect your phone and PC only to send web pages from your phone to your PC with Microsoft Edge.
THE PC APP.
The “Your phone” app runs on your PC, is pre-installed in the Windows 10 Update (October 2018) (version 1809) and is available for download in the Windows 10 Update (April 2018) (version 1803). To check if the app is already included on your PC, go to Start and search for “Your phone” in the app list. If it is not in the app list, find Microsoft Store in the app list, select the icon and in the search box at the top of the Store page type “Your phone”, then download and install the app.
REQUIREMENTS.
To use the Your phone app to view photos and send SMS messages, you need to have: a mobile phone with Android 7.0 (Nougat) or later, a PC with Windows 10 Update (April 2018) (version 1803) or later; in addition, the mobile phone must be connected to the Wi-Fi network and the PC must be connected to the Internet. It must also be possible to run the “Your phone” app on your PC in the background (Windows Settings > Privacy > App in the background). The phone-PC pairing will not work without these versions.
THE APP TO BE INSTALLED ON YOUR SMARTPHONE.
When you open the app Your phone for the first time, the configuration process is explained. Microsoft may ask you in the Your PC Phone app (Start > Your Phone) to log in to your Microsoft account, enter your mobile phone number so that you can send a link to install a complementary app in your phone (this varies depending on the type of phone available, but the Complement to Your Phone for Android or Microsoft Edge for iPhone app is usually sent). When you receive the SMS from Microsoft, tap the link to install the complementary app in your phone, then open it and follow the configuration instructions. If you are asked to log in to the app, make sure you use the same Microsoft account you use on your PC. You must accept notifications on your phone that require access to photos and other related permissions. After completing the configuration process on your Android phone and PC, you can start using the Your Phone app to view the latest photos on your phone and send SMS messages from your PC.
Connecting to multiple PCs at the same time is not supported: you can disconnect one PC from your phone and reconnect it to another.
HOW TO VIEW PHOTOS OF YOUR PHONE ON YOUR PC.
After completing the configuration of the app Your phone in the PC and the app Complementing your phone in your Android phone, take a picture on your Android phone, on the PC select Photo on the left side of the app Your phone (the picture will automatically display in seconds).
Tip: Make sure your Android phone is connected to a Wi-Fi network and your PC is connected to the Internet.
Copy a Photo: Select and hold or right-click on the photo and select Copy, or select a photo and type CTRL+C, or drag and drop a photo from the Your phone app to another location (desktop, office document, email, etc.). At the moment it is not possible to copy photos to SMS.
Share a Photo: Select and hold or right-click the photo and select Share.
Edit a Photo: Select or click a photo to open it with the Photo app. If you save your changes, the file will be saved as new, meaning the original photo will remain in your phone. Photos on your mobile phone are never edited or deleted.
To minimize network bandwidth and optimize performance, the 25 most recent photos and screenshots on your phone are displayed on your PC. When you take more photos with your mobile phone, temporary copies of older photos are removed from your PC. To keep an older photo, copy it from the Your Phone app before it’s replaced by new photos.
The Your phone captures recent photos from your mobile phone using the Wi-Fi network and stores them as temporary files on your PC, not online. If you delete the temporary file from your PC, the original photo on your phone remains unchanged. If you use the Your Phone app to edit the copy of the photo on your PC, the original photo on your phone remains unchanged.
HOW TO READ YOUR PHONE’S SMS ON YOUR PC.
After completing the configuration of the app Your phone on your PC and the app Complementing Your phone on your Android phone, on your PC select Messages on the left side of the app Your phone.
To minimize network bandwidth and optimize performance, SMS received or sent in the last 30 days are shown.
The app Your phone supports SMS (Short Message Service) and MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) group messaging, but does not yet support multimedia attachments (e.g. photos or videos) and does not support messages sent via RCS (Rich Communication Services).
Reading SMARTPHONE NOTICES on your PC (in beta).
Microsoft is testing the possibility of receiving smartphone notifications on your PC for some Android smartphone models in the My Phone app. If this feature is available for your phone connected to your PC, in the My Phone app’s left menu you will find Notifications (preview), then by pressing this item you can access the notification management page on your PC from your smartphone.
SHARING THE SMARTPHONE SCREEN ON THE PC (in beta).
Microsoft is testing, for some Android smartphone models, the possibility to show the smartphone screen on the PC in the My Phone app. If this feature is available for your phone connected to your PC, you will find the Phone Screen item (preview) in the left menu of the My Phone app.
