How to make and receive calls on your PC with the Your Phone app

Microsoft’s Your Phone app for Android can route photos, incoming notifications, and text messages to your Windows 10 PC. Its latest feature update added something even more useful: the ability to make and receive calls on your PC without reaching for your phone. The app can even let you seamlessly transfer calls between your PC and phone in case you need to go mobile.

Getting things set up isn’t difficult, although there are a few requirements to note before you dive into the steps below.

You’ll need a PC (any kind, desktop or laptop, x64 or ARM-based) running Windows 10 version 1803 or higher and any phone running Android version 7.0 or higher.

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DOWNLOAD YOUR PHONE APP ON YOUR PHONE AND PC

To get your Android phone and PC talking to each other, you’ll need the app installed on both devices.

• Download it for your phone from the Google Play Store
• Download the Find the Your Phone app for your PC from the Microsoft Store. (It may already be installed on your machine, so search your list of apps first.)
• Ensure that you’re signed in with a Microsoft account on your PC. (You can sign in using the “Account” option in the Settings app.) Otherwise, you won’t be able to proceed with the setup.
• Once the app is installed on your phone, open it and sign in with your Microsoft account. Note that you’ll need to agree to give it permission to access your contacts, phone call log, media, and text messages, and to continuously run it in the background.

LINK YOUR PHONE AND PC

• After you’ve signed in on both devices, they are ready to talk to each other. Ensure that your phone and PC are on the same Wi-Fi network, then boot the Your Phone app on your PC.

• If you see a dialog box that asks you to select between Android and iOS (iPhone users are currently limited to sending webpages between devices), it means that you haven’t signed in with the same account on mobile and PC (or you forgot to log in on one of them).

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• Once your phone and PC establish a link, you’ll get a persistent notification on your mobile, which will first ask you to verify that you’ll allow the connection of devices to occur. Hit “Allow.”
• At this point, your phone should show up in the Your Phone app on PC. It will include a dialer icon labeled “Calls” at the bottom of the list beneath your phone’s name and image. This is where you’ll go to place calls.

• But first, you’ll need to manually connect your phone via Bluetooth to your PC. The Your Phone app does have a streamlined method for getting dialer access, but it didn’t work in my testing. However, manually pairing the devices worked every time across multiple phones.
• To connect your phone (if you haven’t dealt with Bluetooth before), enable pairing mode in your Android phone by pulling down the notification shade on your home screen, then long-press on the Bluetooth icon to open settings. From there, enable Bluetooth if it’s off and tap “Pair new device” or whatever similar option your phone lists.

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• Now do the same on your PC. Tap the Windows key and type “Bluetooth” to pull up the “Bluetooth & other devices” settings. Once you’re there, tap “Add Bluetooth or other devices,” and in the box that opens up, tap “Bluetooth.”

• Your phone and PC should now display the same PIN. If they do, tap “Connect” on both sources to authenticate the connection. (If you don’t, then try again or check Microsoft’s troubleshooting page.)
• Lastly, open the dialer section in the Your Phone app on your PC, and follow the instructions. It will send another notification to your phone that needs approval. You’ll get yet another notification when you request access to the call log. If you approve both of those (and no, you won’t have to go through this process again), you should see your recent calls populate on the dialer screen. This is a good sign that it’s working.

• Finally! You’re all set up to the place and receive calls with the Your Phone app on Windows 10. Just make sure that your headset or the speakers on your PC are correctly configured to work with calls, and you should be good to go.