iPhone users will soon be able to send iMessages through their PCs
- A small number of Windows Insiders are getting a preview of Microsoft's Phone Link for iOS.
- Phone Link for iOS will let iPhone users send and receive iMessages on their Windows devices.
iPhone users who aren't full Apple loyalists will soon be able to send and receive iMessages through their Windows devices, as well as make and receive calls, and see notifications.
A small number of Windows Insiders — a community of Windows users who get to preview new features and provide feedback — are getting a preview of Phone Link for iOS on Windows 11 starting today, Microsoft said in a blog post. The company said more Insiders will get a preview over time after it receives feedback from the first group of users.
The app only supports basic messaging and calling, and doesn't allow group messaging or sending media, Microsoft said on its blog. Despite not being able to share photos on Phone Link, iCloud Photos is already integrated into the Windows 11 Photos app.
Phone Link for iOS pairs iPhones and PCs over Bluetooth, which means messaging and other capabilities through the app are only available as long as the devices are connected, a spokesperson for Microsoft told Insider.
Messages sent from Phone Link appear as iMessages on iPhones, Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft's head of consumer marketing, told The Verge. The publication also reported that Phone Link only shows messages sent and received while using the app, not a complete message history. The app can't tell the difference between standard texts and iMessages, so it won't display blue or green bubbles.
Android users have had access to Phone Link for some time, and Microsoft announced an "even richer experience" for those users, including the option to "easily transfer" browser sessions from their Samsung phone to their Windows device.
"It's something we've been wanting to do for a long time," Mehdi told The Verge about bringing iOS users to Phone Link. "The experience with Android is quite good, and we felt like we needed to get something out [for iPhone]."
Apple did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
Google, one of the developers of Android, has been picking a battle with Apple over texting between Androids and iPhones with its #GetTheMessage campaign.
In an October update for Android's Messages app, Google made it more difficult for iPhone users to see reactions to their texts by sending a text describing a Messages user's reaction, instead of just showing the reaction.
Google again took a dig at Apple in December with a 30th birthday post for SMS, telling Apple it's time to switch to RCS, or the more advanced Rich Communications System. Google has called RCS, which was chosen to potentially replace SMS in 2008, "the modern industry standard."
Last month, a billboard from Google addressed Apple, telling it to fix "pixelated photos and videos" in texts, and included lines of RCS code to kickstart the process.
"From a Google perspective, we think every Android user should just have messaging over Wi-Fi," Sanaz Ahari, who manages Android and business communications at Google, previously told The Verge.
However, Apple hasn't budged towards switching to RCS, and CEO Tim Cook has previously said he doesn't hear many Apple users request a change to texting between iPhones and Androids. Documents from a 2021 legal battle between Apple and Epic Games show one Apple executive saying "moving iMessage to Android will hurt us more than help us."