Learn how to view iPhone notifications and reply to text messages right from your Windows PC using Microsoft’s free Phone Link app.
iPhone owners can configure text messages to show up on a Mac in Settings > Apps > Messages > Text Message Forwarding. And thanks to the iPhone Mirroring feature in macOS Sequoia, you can receive all or some notifications on your desktop, as well as reply to notifications from messaging apps like WhatsApp.
For Windows users, Microsoft provides the free Phone Link app to relay text messages and app notifications from an iPhone to a PC over Bluetooth without even whipping the device out of the pocket or having it connected to the internet.
I’ve linked up my iPhone to my Samsung PC, and it works fine. Folks who are on Android needn’t worry as Phone Link also works with Android phones.
What you need
- Your iPhone running the latest iOS version
- A PC with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) support running the latest version of Windows 10 or Windows 11
- The Phone Link app from the Microsoft Store installed on the PC
- Bluetooth must be enabled on both the iPhone and the PC
Link your iPhone to your PC using Phone Link
1) Open the Phone Link app on your Windows PC and click the iPhone button.
2) Using the built-in Camera app on your iPhone, scan the QR code from the PC screen and select Pair your devices option at the bottom of the viewfinder. A card pops up; choose Open and then Continue on the next screen.
3) Permit finding nearby Bluetooth devices by choosing Allow.
If the six-digit codes on your iPhone and PC match, hit Pair on both devices.
4) Phone Link will ask that you allow iPhone notifications and contacts.
To do that, open the Settings app on your iPhone, select Bluetooth, touch the info button ⓘ next to the name of your Windows PC and turn on the switches for Show Message Notifications and Share System Notifications. You can also enable the Sync Contacts option for a better texting experience.
5) Click Continue on the PC to link the computer with your iPhone.
Using the Phone Link app to see iPhone notifications
Phone Link displays incoming iPhone notifications in the lefthand section. The notifications also continue to appear on the Lock Screen of your iPhone.
To open this section, click the arrow button (>) in the window’s top-left corner.
When a new iPhone notification arrives:
- An app or bell icon appears in Phone Link’s sidebar for pending notifications, as shown on the screenshot above.
- If you close or minimize Phone Link, iPhone notifications will show up as a banner in the bottom-right corner. Dismissing the banner will tuck away the notification in the Windows Notifications Center.
Clearing pending notifications in Phone Link will remove them from the iPhone’s Lock Screen, and vice versa.
Reply to messages
Phone Link displays recent SMS and iMessage alerts from your iPhone. Just click the notification to reply to the message, with subsequent messages appearing on the chat screen.
Note: Phone Link only lets you reply to texts from the built-in Messages app, not from other apps. For example, clicking the Instagram notification in Phone Link app will instead open the Instagram website in Microsoft’s Edge browser. Similarly, clicking a WhatsApp notification will do a web search for “WhatsApp.”
Send a new message
You can also start new iPhone conversations from the Phone Link app.
1) Select the Messages tab in the Phone Link app on your PC.
2) Click the compose button.
3) Pick a contact or type their phone number, then hit the enter key.
4) Write your message and click the send button.
Manage iPhone notifications in Microsoft Phone Link
Instead of being inundated with iPhone notifications, disable ones you don’t want to receive on your PC. Click the three-dotted menu button in the Phone Link app to view a list of all pending iPhone alerts and turn off ones you don’t want to receive on your PC. Don’t worry, this won’t prevent notifications from reaching your iPhone.
You can also manage iPhone notifications in the Phone Link settings.
1) Open the Phone Link app on your PC and click the gear cog in the top -right corner.
2) Click Features in the lefthand section.
3) Expand the Notifications pane and hit “Choose which apps I get notifications from.”
4) You’ll see a dynamically updated list of iPhone apps that have sent you alerts. Here, you can choose specific app notifications to show up in the the Notifications feed, make them appear as banners, or turn them off altogether.
My iPhone app notifications continue to be displayed as banners on my PC even though I’ve explicitly disabled this option. This is probably just a bug, but I wanted to share it in case it happens to you.
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