It's finally happening! Microsoft has announced that the Windows 11 Phone Link app will soon support the iPhone, with a preview version available to some Windows Insiders starting today.
This is the first time since the announcement of Phone Link that notifications, texts, and calls from an iPhone can be synced directly with a Windows PC. Unlike Phone Link for Android, which requires a companion app to be installed on the phone itself, the iOS version of Phone Link uses Bluetooth to function.
To set up Phone Link on an iPhone, just connect your device to your computer through Bluetooth and follow the on-screen instructions. Just texting, calling, and alerts will function in the initial preview.
Phone Link for iOS presently does not support responding to group messages or sending media messages. Not only is there no screen-sharing feature, but that's to be expected from a beta.
Several other new features, such as a tablet-optimized Taskbar, a full-screen widgets panel, enhancements to in-box apps like Notepad and Snipping Tool, Bing Chat in Windows Search, and more, were also announced alongside the unveiling of Phone Link for iOS as Microsoft's first Windows 11 feature drop for 2023.
The Phone Link upgrade is currently in a restricted preview with a subset of Windows Insiders on the Release Preview, Beta, and Dev Channels. This implies that this feature isn't included in the latest feature drop for Windows 11, but it should become available to more customers over the next weeks and months.
With iPhone functionality, Phone Link can now compete with other Windows smartphone syncing apps like Intel Unison. When comparing features, however, Intel Unison is still superior to iPhone's Phone Link because it allows for seeing images and exchanging data.
