Microsoft’s Phone Link app has come a long way. While it doesn’t completely bridge the gap, it does bring a sort of seamless Android-Windows integration. A few months ago, Microsoft deployed a Phone Link companion to the Windows 11 Start menu for insiders, providing easy access to your smartphone. However, the more we used it, the more it tempted us to wonder, “Why does it exist in the first place?” » But before we enter this territory, let’s learn how to use it.

Although the Phone Link companion is not widely deployed, you might be lucky if you have joins the Windows Insider program and installed the latest Dev or Beta versions. You must also have Phone Link version 1.24061.93.0 or higher.

1. Press “Windows + I” to open Windows Settings. After that open Personalization.
2. Scroll down and click To start.

3. Then scroll down and you will find “Show mobile device in Start“. Turn it on to enable Phone Link in the Start menu and turn off the toggle to remove the companion.
4. Now open the Start menu on Windows 11 and you should see the Phone Link companion.

The Phone Link companion integrates seamlessly with Windows 11 Start Menu. It fits in as an extension and matches the Start menu colors, so it looks pretty consistent and not out of place.

From top to bottom you have your mobile device with a wallpaper preview and the device name at the top. It is accompanied by a few smaller elements like the connection status represented by a green check mark, the Bluetooth icon and the battery percentage of your mobile device.

Then you have three options: Messages, Calls and Photos – essentially, shortcuts that open the appropriate page in Phone Link. This is then followed by the “Recents” area containing all recent photos captured on your phone, recent calls and messages. And that’s pretty much all you get in the Start menu.

If you’re wondering if this affects Windows 11 startup or overall performance, I’ve been using the companion for four months and haven’t noticed any major performance drops. However, if you’re using older hardware, you might experience slowdowns during startup.

By far, one of my biggest complaints about this feature is that I can’t read a recent message preview, or enable/disable features like DND, find my phone, or mirror recent phone apps . Despite the 5-6 odd months that Microsoft spent previewing the feature on the Insider channel, it has received almost no improvements and feels like a shortcut hub to open the Phone Link app.

If I wanted to know who called or messaged me recently, I would directly open notifications or the Phone Link app itself where I can interact with messages and calls. The Phone Link companion does not allow any type of interaction in the Start menu.

It’s similar to the annoying flaw with using Phone apps on Windows 11. Phone Link asks for casting permissions every time I want to mirror an app. This kills the whole point of having a companion, which is supposed to make accessing features easier.

Apart from the issues mentioned above, users can also benefit greatly from the ability to drag and drop files in the companion to transfer files or photos to the phone. Additionally, one of the Chromebook-inspired features that can definitely find some use on Windows 11 is Recent Links. Phone Link can display active Edge pages on Android so users can continue the browsing experience on the PC.

To answer the question “Why does it exist”, we couldn’t find any reason, other than the fact that it allows you to quickly check the recent status of your phone. What do you think of Phone Link’s Start Menu companion? Let us know in the comments.