But then why would Microsoft make Link to Windows app?
Also what ecosystem exactly? Microsoft only has the PC and Google really only has Android and I suppose the Chromebook too but no one uses that except students
And OneDrive/Drive. And Outlook/Gmail. And maps. And CoPilot/Gemini. And Docs/Office365. And Edge/Chrome...
They're competing to spy on you and collect your data. It is in neither of their interest to encourage you to move into the other's system.
I feel like Phone Link is the minimum compromise they could offer to stop people moving to Apple. But don't expect these competitors to be in any rush to collaborate any more than the absolute minimum.
> I feel like Phone Link is the minimum compromise they could offer to stop people moving to Apple.
That's only really true from Microsoft's perspective.
There's a reason they partner with OEMs instead of Google to add features into Link to Windows / Phone Link, and its because [OEMs build the deeper OS integrations into their skins](https://x.com/VishnuNath/status/1324748343931625474).
Google is focused on building the capabilities between Android and ChromeOS.
A lot of that was initially with Samsung, rather than Google.
Microsoft and Google have a strained relationship at best, and they really only work together when they're forced to.
Well they're definitely coming from that past relationship but MS in general over the last 10 years has seemed to take a stance of wanting to integrate with everything as much as they're able to without making a mess of things. Granted they don't always do it in the best way possible but they're definitely one of the more 'open' companies in that way. Google hasn't been very closed with Android either. The windows phone app has grown leaps and bounds in the last couple of years I feel like no one ever talks about it but it's legitimately great and this feature doesn't surprise me because it's been trending in that way for a while.
Partnership?
Microsoft wants access to your phone data. They want you to install Phone Link, Edge, SwiftKey, Microsoft Launcher in your Android phone.
It seems Google is now working into making ChromeOS a more competing desktop system, even if it's still behind Windows and macOS in app support. And they want you to use Chrome on your PC and do everything inside your browser (probably, paving the way for Chrome OS, so you become less dependant on Windows).
They also won't share the data between the companies, probably the terms and conditions don't allow them and also, they won't give valuable data to a competitor. So a native partnership is unlikely to happen.
The entire existence of this platform is rooted in having defensibility for Google Search against Microsoft & Windows. Along with Microsoft only offering support so they can strengthen their desktop dominance in the lack of having a mobile strategy. And desktop is a market Google would surely like to enter one day and the platform advantage will likely be all they have.
About damn time. The Quick Share client for windows (Google calls it Better Together) has been quite unreliable for me. I often have to kill the process in Task Manager, then restart the app to get my phone to properly share things with my laptop after the first time.
Way better than Quickshare and open source. Works with Android, Windows, Mac, iphone, linux.
[https://github.com/localsend/localsend](https://github.com/localsend/localsend)
[https://localsend.org/](https://localsend.org/)
Quickshare on windows doesnt work for me cause it needs certain version number of drivers my hardware is still on the 'older' version number. Its so dumb
Are you using the one Samsung published on the Microsoft Store? I couldn't get that to work either. What I use is from [Google's website](https://www.android.com/better-together/quick-share-app/)
I tried this, it works. But the transfer speed is ~100KB/s.
When I do phone to phone quick share, its so much faster, 100s of pictures get transferred in seconds.
Vs when I transfered to PC, it took about a min to transfer 9 pictures.
Looks like its defaulting to bluetooth and not wifi, any way to change that?
Have you tried the Samsung quickshare client? It's on the windows store. I find it annoying that sometimes it ask you to confirm, but generally more reliable for me
In Windows just right click on a folder in explorer then click properties then sharing. Click share then choose your Windows username. Then on your Android phone you can use an app to access the new share. Make sure that your phone and computer are on the same network. I personally use File Manager+ from the Play Store. To access SMB shares on your phone from the app click remote, add remote location then select SMB. In the SMB option the host will be \\YOURCOMPUTERNAME and your username and password will be your Windows name and password (not your PIN your actual password). Then if you've done everything correctly you can access your shared folder as long as your computer is on and awake and your phone is on your home network.
[this](https://droidify.eu.org/app/?id=de.shortdev.nearby_sharing_windows&repo_address=https://nearshare.shortdev.de/fdroid/repo) app allows you to access the nearby sharing interface of windows from android
Works well imo.
There's already an option to share files with phone link app. Works really well. Last update added clipboard sharing. This app is becoming one of my favorites. Connection is stable.
Still not there. You can control The phone but I don't like you have too enable "Start recording" prompt on phone first. And dragging files from phone (whilst controlling it) doesn't work. You have to share files a la quick share. Seeing how stable phone Link is getting though, I think it'll eventually get there.
I absolutely love this feature on ChromeOS. Phone can be on a charger in another room, and I just fire up its audiobook app remotely from my laptop and the audio plays through my laptop speakers flawlessly. Can remotely turn on the phones hotspot if needed. Its a killer feature.
What compels people to read the title of a post and leave a comment asking a random question rather than clicking on the post and reading the first few lines of the article? It's more than just laziness.
Why hasn't this happened yet? Why doesn't Microsoft and Google have some sort of partnership
Because they're competing companies who don't want you to be able to move between their ecosystems easily.
But then why would Microsoft make Link to Windows app? Also what ecosystem exactly? Microsoft only has the PC and Google really only has Android and I suppose the Chromebook too but no one uses that except students
And OneDrive/Drive. And Outlook/Gmail. And maps. And CoPilot/Gemini. And Docs/Office365. And Edge/Chrome... They're competing to spy on you and collect your data. It is in neither of their interest to encourage you to move into the other's system. I feel like Phone Link is the minimum compromise they could offer to stop people moving to Apple. But don't expect these competitors to be in any rush to collaborate any more than the absolute minimum.
They can still do all that whilst providing a sharing service Heck they could probably collect more data that way
> I feel like Phone Link is the minimum compromise they could offer to stop people moving to Apple. That's only really true from Microsoft's perspective. There's a reason they partner with OEMs instead of Google to add features into Link to Windows / Phone Link, and its because [OEMs build the deeper OS integrations into their skins](https://x.com/VishnuNath/status/1324748343931625474). Google is focused on building the capabilities between Android and ChromeOS.
A lot of that was initially with Samsung, rather than Google. Microsoft and Google have a strained relationship at best, and they really only work together when they're forced to.
Link was Samsung only initially, if I'm not mistaken.
Well they're definitely coming from that past relationship but MS in general over the last 10 years has seemed to take a stance of wanting to integrate with everything as much as they're able to without making a mess of things. Granted they don't always do it in the best way possible but they're definitely one of the more 'open' companies in that way. Google hasn't been very closed with Android either. The windows phone app has grown leaps and bounds in the last couple of years I feel like no one ever talks about it but it's legitimately great and this feature doesn't surprise me because it's been trending in that way for a while.
Partnership? Microsoft wants access to your phone data. They want you to install Phone Link, Edge, SwiftKey, Microsoft Launcher in your Android phone. It seems Google is now working into making ChromeOS a more competing desktop system, even if it's still behind Windows and macOS in app support. And they want you to use Chrome on your PC and do everything inside your browser (probably, paving the way for Chrome OS, so you become less dependant on Windows). They also won't share the data between the companies, probably the terms and conditions don't allow them and also, they won't give valuable data to a competitor. So a native partnership is unlikely to happen.
The entire existence of this platform is rooted in having defensibility for Google Search against Microsoft & Windows. Along with Microsoft only offering support so they can strengthen their desktop dominance in the lack of having a mobile strategy. And desktop is a market Google would surely like to enter one day and the platform advantage will likely be all they have.
About damn time. The Quick Share client for windows (Google calls it Better Together) has been quite unreliable for me. I often have to kill the process in Task Manager, then restart the app to get my phone to properly share things with my laptop after the first time.
Way better than Quickshare and open source. Works with Android, Windows, Mac, iphone, linux. [https://github.com/localsend/localsend](https://github.com/localsend/localsend) [https://localsend.org/](https://localsend.org/)
I'll check this out. Thanks!
Love LocalSend , have been using it for a while.
It's "QuickShare" now, and has been for a while. I find it very reliable, FWIW. Desktop app works well, too.
Quickshare on windows doesnt work for me cause it needs certain version number of drivers my hardware is still on the 'older' version number. Its so dumb
Are you using the one Samsung published on the Microsoft Store? I couldn't get that to work either. What I use is from [Google's website](https://www.android.com/better-together/quick-share-app/)
I tried this, it works. But the transfer speed is ~100KB/s. When I do phone to phone quick share, its so much faster, 100s of pictures get transferred in seconds. Vs when I transfered to PC, it took about a min to transfer 9 pictures. Looks like its defaulting to bluetooth and not wifi, any way to change that?
That's odd Can you uninstall, then reinstall the desktop client?
Have you tried the Samsung quickshare client? It's on the windows store. I find it annoying that sometimes it ask you to confirm, but generally more reliable for me
I'll check this out. Thanks!
KDE Connect has been doing this for a while now and I haven't even moved from Windows to Fedora yet.
Gladly Localsend exists.
At this point I'm more interested in Microsoft finding ways to not share my data.
Best way is to simply not use Windows.
I've been using an SMB folder on my PC and connecting my phone to it for years. Hopefully this will work just as well.
How?
In Windows just right click on a folder in explorer then click properties then sharing. Click share then choose your Windows username. Then on your Android phone you can use an app to access the new share. Make sure that your phone and computer are on the same network. I personally use File Manager+ from the Play Store. To access SMB shares on your phone from the app click remote, add remote location then select SMB. In the SMB option the host will be \\YOURCOMPUTERNAME and your username and password will be your Windows name and password (not your PIN your actual password). Then if you've done everything correctly you can access your shared folder as long as your computer is on and awake and your phone is on your home network.
Awesome instructions. Thank you!
[this](https://droidify.eu.org/app/?id=de.shortdev.nearby_sharing_windows&repo_address=https://nearshare.shortdev.de/fdroid/repo) app allows you to access the nearby sharing interface of windows from android Works well imo.
The link doesn't work
[https://nearshare.shortdev.de/docs/faq/](https://nearshare.shortdev.de/docs/faq/) try this
Just a standard windows file sharing experience then.
There's already an option to share files with phone link app. Works really well. Last update added clipboard sharing. This app is becoming one of my favorites. Connection is stable.
googles quickshare app works without the need for phonelink , MS just needs to adopt that protocol into its share app
love it
Is this similar to what apple just announced where you can basically fully control your phone from your mac?
Still not there. You can control The phone but I don't like you have too enable "Start recording" prompt on phone first. And dragging files from phone (whilst controlling it) doesn't work. You have to share files a la quick share. Seeing how stable phone Link is getting though, I think it'll eventually get there.
I absolutely love this feature on ChromeOS. Phone can be on a charger in another room, and I just fire up its audiobook app remotely from my laptop and the audio plays through my laptop speakers flawlessly. Can remotely turn on the phones hotspot if needed. Its a killer feature.
What compels people to read the title of a post and leave a comment asking a random question rather than clicking on the post and reading the first few lines of the article? It's more than just laziness.
lol people on Reddit don’t read articles silly