Overview
- An in-app alert now appears in Phone Link stating that the Photos feature is migrating to File Explorer and urging users to switch.
- File Explorer surfaces the phone’s full storage, enabling video viewing along with multi-select, copy and paste, and drag-and-drop operations.
- Users who do not see their phone in File Explorer can enable it in Settings under Manage mobile devices by turning on Show mobile device in File Explorer.
- The shift trades Phone Link’s app-style gallery that queried Android’s MediaStore for a folder-based view that requires navigating locations like Screenshots.
- Microsoft has not provided a removal date for the Phone Link gallery, and the app continues to handle features such as notification relay and phone control.