Microsoft is updating its Phone Link app to support iOS’
iMessage service, including making and receiving calls and messages, as well as
viewing phone notifications; all within Windows 11.
iPhone users can connect their devices to a Windows laptop
or PC via a Bluetooth connection, then access Phone Link to use iMessage. Through
this functionality, one can message contacts that also have iPhones directly from
their PC. However, this excludes the ability to send pictures as messages and interact
in group chats.
iMessage conversations in Phone Link appear in a simplified format where only messages that have been exchanged using Phone Link are displayed. This means that users can not view their complete message history in the app. Moreover, there are no blue ticks and green bubbles as in the original iMessage format.
Microsoft has also integrated a similar functionality in
Phone Link for Android, which it has seen successful results for, hence the decision
to launch support for iMessage. The Android integration, though, is not as basic
as the iOS integration. Perhaps Microsoft would add more display features and
tools to revamp this update in the future.
In addition to the new Phone Link support, Microsoft is also
releasing a major update for Windows 11, which features a Bing AI chatbot, screen
recording, enhanced touch optimizations, and other options.
Microsoft is releasing the new Phone Link updated to
selected iPhone users initially and plans to expand it to more people after
receiving sufficient feedback from the test.
