Windows Phone Link calls work on PC but iPhone limits apply

Windows Phone Link calls need three things: an up-to-date Phone Link app, your phone paired to the PC, and Bluetooth turned on at both ends. Start by opening the Microsoft Store, going to the Downloads tab and choosing Check for updates, then update Phone Link if it offers a newer release. If you haven’t run Windows Update in a while, do that too.

Next, search the Start menu for Phone Link and open it. Pick iPhone or Android. The app shows a QR code (a square barcode) that you scan with your phone’s camera, and that walks you through the phone side.

• On an iPhone, you install Microsoft’s Link to Windows app from the App Store and pair over Bluetooth. When a pairing code appears on the PC, click Pair. Then, in the iPhone’s Bluetooth settings, tap the small info icon next to your computer’s name to turn on contact syncing, so you can dial people by name.
• On Android, the phone links to Windows over Wi-Fi or mobile data, and you can start from the Link to Windows app on the phone instead if you prefer. Calls still need a Bluetooth pairing on top of that, so don’t skip it. Accept the permission prompts for any feature you want to use.

Once that’s done, open the Calls tab. Search a synced contact or tap numbers on the dial pad. Incoming calls should pop up on the PC with no extra steps.

Expect a few hurdles. One tester using a Pixel 8 and a Windows 11 laptop said the first round of setup took about 10 minutes, with a QR scan and a long run of permission requests. Texts and photos then worked, but calls needed a second round of Bluetooth pairing and some troubleshooting on both the phone and the laptop before they would connect.

That is the part to plan for. Phone Link feels less like one switch and more like several small features that each need their own permission. If calls don’t show up after the first pass, check that Bluetooth is on and paired on both devices before assuming something is broken.

Keep the phone fairly close to the PC too. The call still travels over your phone’s cellular connection, so a weak signal or a phone left in another room can make calls choppy.

With an iPhone, Phone Link covers three jobs: calls, text messages, and viewing or clearing your phone’s notifications. That is enough for many people. To switch any of these on or off, open Phone Link on the PC, click the gear icon for Settings and choose Features.

Android phones get noticeably more. You can browse and copy the most recent 2,000 photos from your camera roll, which is handy when you want one picture in a document without syncing a whole cloud photo library to your PC. Android owners can also control music with Now Playing, mute the phone when it’s making noise and switch on Do Not Disturb from the computer.

Some Android models go further still. Select phones from brands such as Samsung, Xiaomi, vivo, OPPO, ASUS and HONOR, with Link to Windows preinstalled and Android 10 or newer, can stream their apps to the PC as long as both are on the same Wi-Fi network. Pairing for calls does not guarantee that app streaming will work.

For desk workers, the gain is focus. A call comes in, you answer on the PC and keep working, and your phone stays face down. A headset helps a lot, both so people nearby don’t hear the other side of the call and so a mic is always ready. A gaming headset you already own will do the job.

Notifications are the other thing to tame. Phone Link marks everything as unread until you open or dismiss it on the PC, so a message you already saw on your lock screen hours ago can still show up with a badge. Under Settings and then General, you can hide those numbered badges and limit how much private detail appears in pop-up banners, which matters if other people can see your screen.

If you only want calls from your computer and don’t care about your real number, there are other routes. Desktop chat apps such as WhatsApp handle voice calls, and Google Voice gives you a separate number. But for calls on the number your contacts already know, Phone Link is the tool built for it.

Microsoft is now testing a faster way in. In a Windows Insider build released October 30 to the Experimental channel (an early test track, not regular Windows 11), you can type a request such as call or text plus a contact’s name into taskbar Search and pick the action from the results. The same feature can switch on Do Not Disturb on the linked phone, and each result shows which phone it will run on.

Microsoft says Android support works now, with iPhone support due early next year. It is rolling out gradually, so not every tester on that build sees it, and there is no date for the stable version of Windows 11. One tester also found Search listing apps from a paired Samsung phone and opening them in a mirrored Phone Link window, something Microsoft’s notes don’t mention. Since Microsoft shut down its Android app system for Windows in March 2025, streaming apps from the phone is the only official way to run them on a PC.