One of Microsoft's unexpected success stories on the PC is Phone Link, a way for you to control and use your Android phone while you work on your computer. So it's a shame that Microsoft is destroying the app when it probably isn't necessary.
Microsoft is removing some photos from Phone Link and returning them to File Explorer. Is this a big deal? Yes and no.
Windows Central and Windows Latest noticed the change on Friday morning, but it also showed up in my Phone Link app: a notification that Phone Link is closing and that you can now access your phone's photos through the stock File Explorer app.
Telephone linkonce named Your Phone app on Windows PC, is now a single Windows experience for both Android phones and Apple iPhone (well, sort of.) Recent going to the Windows start menu puts the “phone companion” menu on a page that is essentially a subset and shortcut of Phone Link. Phone Link puts all your SMS messages, phone calls, photos and Android apps on one page and can even be navigated across the phone screen itself. Yes, mobile messaging has quietly migrated to iMessage and various Android apps like WhatsApp, but it's still a single view of what's happening on your phone.
And it's convenient for both you and Microsoft. I've used Phone Link's Photos feature when my phone wouldn't fully sync with OneDrive and the Windows Photos app when I needed a phone photo to illustrate a story. I'll still use Photos and even OneDrive to find photos from years ago, but the fact that I can see key functions of my phone right on the display I'm working on is very convenient. And let's face it: The Explorer is a little clunky at the best of times.
The only feature I don't see in Phone Link that I see elsewhere on PC is video support, which is becoming an increasingly important feature in our daily lives as people record short snippets of what they see around them. For this, I suppose it's worth visiting File Explorer or the Windows Photos app, which remains my choice for archived photos and videos.
However, it seems (again) that Microsoft is making changes that no one asked for. Isn't there a better way?
