The technological evolution of smartphones has led us to a situation where our small mobile devices are veritable pocket computers. And with this, the need to keep our mobile phones connected to our computers is becoming increasingly common. For example, to share images and documents. For these situations, Windows offers a powerful tool like Mobile Link, which transfers your photos from your phone to your computer.
Last year, Microsoft began experimenting with ways to have PCs in the cloud , allowing seamless access from both computers and mobile devices. It's a somewhat extravagant idea, but the future is surely heading in that direction. Until that day arrives, we have other solutions.
What is Mobile Link?
In 2018, Microsoft introduced a new application designed specifically to bridge the gap between PCs (running Windows 10 and 11) and any other mobile device running Android operating systems. Its original name was "My Phone," but it was soon changed to Mobile Link.
The " Phone Link " app is available in the Microsoft Store (although it comes pre-installed on Windows 11). It allows you to connect your Android phone to your PC and access all its functions. You can even make phone calls without having to pick up your phone. Of course, you'll also need to download the app from the Play Store on your phone.
The requirements to make Enlace Link work are as follows:
- A PC running Windows 2019 May 10 Update or later.
- An Android device running Android 7.0 (Nougat) or later.
How to sync Mobile Link
This is the way to correctly synchronize Mobile Link step by step and thus be able to start using it:
- First of all, you have to start Mobile Link (or look for it in the taskbar of our Windows 11 PC).
- Then it should select "Android" and, to complete the configuration, scan the QR code that shows.
- Finally, there is only customize notification preferences from “Features in Mobile Link on your PC” within the settings menu. For example, decide which apps can send us notifications
If you encounter difficulties when performing the synchronization, Microsoft has a help page that offers a series of solutions to the most common problems.
What is Windows Mobile Link for?
There are many ways in which this application can be useful to us in our daily lives. Total communication between PC and smartphone opens up a lot of interesting possibilities. Here is a brief summary of everything we will be able to do:
- Make and receive calls from your own PC. You can also check your call history or search for contacts.*
- Manage notifications of all kinds from your mobile or PC. Among other things, it is also possible to customize the alert banners according to our own preferences
- Maintain our communications and chats from any device. It is not necessary to unlock the phone to read text messages and even reply to them directly from our PC.
- Mute the phone or put it in "Do not disturb" mode.
- Verify aspects related to the operation of the phone from the PC such as battery level, WiFi connection, whether Bluetooth is activated, connection and current strength of the mobile data network, etc.
(*) For this function it is necessary that both devices be paired via Bluetooth. For the rest of the options, the WiFi connection is sufficient.
One thing to keep in mind is that while the My Link option is enabled, your mobile phone will consume more resources and battery than usual. Furthermore, in addition to the features listed here, the photo sharing option is the main focus of this post. Therefore, we will analyze it in greater detail.
Share photos between mobile and PC
Without a doubt, this is the most interesting Mobile Link feature for most users. We can transfer photos captured on our mobile device to our PC simply by dragging them to our desktop . We have all the usual options (open, open with, copy, share, delete, save, etc.) as well as additional photo editing options.
If you think about it, it's a very practical feature. We often find that our mobile device's storage is overflowing with images and photos. And, let's be honest, the phone isn't the most suitable platform for managing and organizing all this content. Doing it from a computer screen, on the other hand, is much more convenient and easier.
If only for this reason, it is worth installing Enlace Móvil and learning how to transfer photos from your mobile phone to your computer