NOTE: As of Friday afternoon the Your Phone app is now available on Fast and Slow Ring Redstone 5 builds. Just go into the Microsoft Store and check for updates to get the updated app. Once it is installed, just follow the gallery below to get connected.

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Ever since Build 2018 Windows 10 testers have been looking forward to trying out Your Phone. This is an app on Windows 10 that gives you access to your Android or iOS phone to easily access recent pictures, text messages and notifications.

Earlier this week, Microsoft updated their Microsoft Apps app on Android in preparation for beginning public testing of the Your Phone app. Overnight that updated Your Phone app was pushed out to Windows Insiders on Skip Ahead builds.

The initial release of the Your Phone app is only for Android devices and is limited to accessing recent photos on your phone.

Once you have both the Microsoft Apps and Your Phone app updates on your devices, the setup process is very straight forward.

  1. Ensure you are signed into your Microsoft Account on your Android device using the latest Microsoft Apps app update released earlier this week.
  2. Download the Your Phone app update on your Windows 10 Skip Ahead device. The app is Version 1.0.12091.0.
  3. Open the Your Phone app and follow the prompts to send a notification to your Android device to connect the devices.
  4. On your Android device, accept the connection request from the Your Phone app.

After that last step, the Your Phone app on Windows 10 will refresh and display your recent images.

Some observations about the current version of the Your Phone app:

  • As mentioned earlier, the current release only supports viewing images on your Android device. They expect to add iOS connectivity in the future.
  • Access to messaging and alerts will be added as testing progresses.
  • On Fast Ring devices, the Your Phone app is being shown as requiring an OS update to be compatible.
  • You can right-click on images to copy them for pasting elsewhere in Windows 10; Dragging and dropping is also available.
  • You can not delete images from the connected phone using the Your Phone app but that feature is coming according to Microsoft on Twitter.
  • Images that are available in the Your Phone app are about 50% of the size compared to their original image on your phone. For instance, a camera image on my phone that is 4032 x 3024 pixels (2.14MB) is 2277 x 1708 pixels (776KB) in the app.
  • Multiple Windows 10 devices running Your Phone can be connected to a single Android device but only one active connection is possible at a time. The setup process is the same for subsequent devices and the connection to the phone will be tied to the Windows 10 device that last opened/refreshed the view in the Your Phone app.
  • You must be on the same Wi-Fi network to use Your Phone as it does not use cellular data to facilitate the connection between devices.
  • The Messaging part of the app is in this build and can be accessed by right-clicking the Your Phone icon and selecting Messages. Nothing works yet but it appears this could be the next element to be added in the app. I included a screenshot of the UI in the gallery below.

It would appear that Your Phone is not destined for inclusion in the Redstone 5 feature update that is currently being tested by Windows Insiders. I hope I am wrong about this but right now the updated Your Phone app is only showing up on my Skip Ahead devices and not on Fast Ring. Others on Twitter have confirmed this is the case as well for their own systems.

In fact, when you go through the gallery below, you will see that the Your Phone app store listing shows it as being incompatible with my system running Windows 10 RS5 Fast Ring Build 17728. When Build 17728 was released earlier this week and with all the attention for Your Phone in those release notes, I fully expected it was coming to Fast Ring but current availability shows that might not be the case.

While, this could be a temporary issue, something tells me that the Your Phone app and its related capabilities will be working towards possible inclusion in Windows 10 19H1. 19H1 is the new code name for Windows 10 feature updates and this one, the seventh overall, is expected in the first half of 2019.

However, it is still early stages of testing this new connectivity to your mobile device. Microsoft is working hard to break their habit of promising features for certain updates/timing. After Build 2017 and not shipping features they announced were for the Fall Creators Update, they have pretty much stopped doing that all together. Now all we have to work on is the physical evidence and right now that points towards 19H1 instead of RS5 for Your Phone.

Have you received the updated Your Phone app? Let us know what you think so far.

Your Phone App Setup Screenshot Gallery

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