Phone Companion is a discontinued app advertising and file transfer utility included with

Windows 10 Windows 10 is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It is the direct successor to Windows 8.1, which was released nearly two years earlier. It was released to manufacturing on July 15, 2015, and later to retail on J ...

and available for

Windows 10 Mobile Windows 10 Mobile is a discontinued mobile operating system developed by Microsoft. First released in 2015, it is a successor to Windows Phone 8.1, but was marketed by Microsoft as being an edition of its PC operating system Windows 10. Wind ...

. It provided a partial list of Microsoft apps that are available on

Android Android may refer to: Science and technology * Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human * Android (operating system), Google's mobile operating system ** Bugdroid, a Google mascot sometimes referred to ...

, and Windows 10 Mobile. In order to use the Phone Companion, users had to sign in with a Microsoft Account, which would sync installation progress across devices. It was replaced by the

Phone Link Phone Link, previously Your Phone, is an app developed by Microsoft to connect Windows 10 and Windows 11 PCs to Android and iOS devices. It enables a PC to access the 2000 most recent photos on a connected phone, send SMS messages, and make ph ...

app in the October 2018 Update, but can still be accessed on prior versions.

App advertising

The first screen allows users to choose a type of mobile device that they own. Once the user has chosen, a second screen presents the user with information on some of the available apps. Under the listing for Windows phones, there is a link to view available devices. On the Windows 10 Mobile screen, users are shown a list of apps that are already built-into their phone's system: Cortana,

Photos A photograph (also known as a photo, image, or picture) is an image created by light falling on a photosensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic image sensor, such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are now created ...

Groove Groove or Grooves may refer to: Music * Groove (music) * Groove (drumming) * The Groove (band), an Australian rock/pop band of the 1960s * The Groove (Sirius XM), a US radio station * Groove 101.7FM, a former Perth, Australia, radio station * ...

, Movies & TV, OneNote,

Skype Skype () is a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for VoIP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also has instant messaging, file transfer, deb ...

, "Office" (

Word A word is a basic element of language that carries an semantics, objective or pragmatics, practical semantics, meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of w ...

Excel ExCeL London (an abbreviation for Exhibition Centre London) is an exhibition centre, international convention centre and former hospital in the Custom House area of Newham, East London. It is situated on a site on the northern quay of the ...

, and

PowerPoint Microsoft PowerPoint is a presentation program, created by Robert Gaskins and Dennis Austin at a software company named Forethought, Inc. It was released on April 20, 1987, initially for Macintosh computers only. Microsoft acquired PowerPoi ...

only in this listing), and

Outlook Outlook or The Outlook may refer to: Computing * Microsoft Outlook, an e-mail and personal information management software product from Microsoft * Outlook.com, a web mail service from Microsoft * Outlook on the web, a suite of web applications ...

. Clicking on an icon in the list provides a description of what the app does. It is not clear why OneNote, Outlook,

Sway Sway may refer to: Places * Sway, Hampshire, a village and civil parish in the New Forest in England ** Sway railway station, serving the village People * Sway (British musician) (born 1983), British hip hop/grime singer * Sway Calloway (born 1 ...

, Delve, and

Office Lens Microsoft mobile services are a set of proprietary mobile services created specifically for mobile devices, they are typically offered through mobile applications and mobile browser for Windows Phone, (operating system), platforms, Binary Runt ...

are not included in the Office category. If the user selects the Android or the iOS screen, they will see a list of apps available for that mobile operating system, all of which support Microsoft account sign-ins: Cortana,

OneDrive Microsoft OneDrive (formerly SkyDrive) is a file hosting service operated by Microsoft. First launched in August 2007, it enables registered users to share and synchronize their files. OneDrive also works as the storage backend of the web ver ...

, Groove, OneNote, Skype, "Office", and Outlook. There is a Get Started button below each. Clicking on one will lead the user to a series of steps with a description of the app or bundle, spot for emailing a link to the app on the mobile device's store, and button for marking that the app has been downloaded onto a mobile device. Microsoft does not list its cross-platform apps for

Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand created and owned by Microsoft. The brand consists of five video game consoles, as well as applications (games), streaming services, an online service by the name of Xbox network, and the development arm by the na ...

, Solitaire Collection,

Money Money is any item or verifiable record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts, such as taxes, in a particular country or socio-economic context. The primary functions which distinguish money are as ...

Sports Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, th ...

News News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different Media (communication), media: word of mouth, printing, Mail, postal systems, broadcasting, Telecommunications, electronic communication, or through the tes ...

Weather Weather is the state of the atmosphere, describing for example the degree to which it is hot or cold, wet or dry, calm or stormy, clear or cloudy. On Earth, most weather phenomena occur in the lowest layer of the planet's atmosphere, the ...

, Sway, Delve, Office Lens,

GroupMe GroupMe is a mobile group messaging app owned by Microsoft. It was launched in May 2010 by the private company GroupMe. In August 2011, GroupMe delivered over 100 million messages each month and by June 2012, that number jumped to 550 million. I ...

, or

Bing Bing most often refers to: * Bing Crosby (1903–1977), American singer * Microsoft Bing, a web search engine Bing may also refer to: Food and drink * Bing (bread), a Chinese flatbread * Bing (soft drink), a UK brand * Bing cherry, a variety ...

on the Phone Companion.

File transfer

Phone Companion can detect when a phone or tablet is plugged into the PC and displays the name of the device and manufacturer. When a phone is plugged in, Phone Companion links to the transfer activity in Photos or the phone's storage location in

File Explorer File Explorer, previously known as Windows Explorer, is a file manager application that is included with releases of the Microsoft Windows operating system from Windows 95 onwards. It provides a graphical user interface for accessing the file ...

. Because File Explorer and Photos can handle file transfers on their own, Phone Companion is not required for file transfers. What it offers users is a visible shortcut to the transfer activities, of which users may have been unaware previously. Due to the security policies of iOS, it is not possible to transfer files from a PC to an iPhone or an iPad using File Explorer.

References

External links

* {{Microsoft Windows components Windows components Universal Windows Platform apps