Your Phone App | Microsoft

Microsoft’s initial solution was a disaster. In 2015, they released Phone Companion , an app that was little more than a glorified launcher for iOS and Android apps on Windows. It flopped. Users hated it. It felt like Microsoft was begging Google and Apple for table scraps.

A quiet announcement was made on the Microsoft Tech Community blog in late 2024: “We are refocusing Phone Link on core scenarios: notifications, messages, and photos. Screen mirroring will remain available for select Samsung and Surface Duo devices.” microsoft your phone app

In a bizarre, final act, Microsoft rebranded the app. It was no longer “Your Phone.” It was now —a name so generic it could have been a 1990s utility for syncing a Palm Pilot. The new app had a sleek design, but the guts were the same. The promised features—cross-device copy/paste for all Android devices, universal screen mirroring—never materialized. Microsoft’s initial solution was a disaster