How to use Link to Windows on the Galaxy S20 to see texts and notifications on your PC

The Galaxy S20 has a pre-installed service that lets you mirror incoming notifications and texts to your Windows PC. It's easy to set up, and all you need is a Microsoft account to link both your phone and PC. If you don't want to unlock your phone for every new notification and are instead looking at an alternative to mirror them easily to your PC, Link to Windows is the service for you.

How to set up Link to Windows on your Windows PC

For Link to Windows to work, you'll need to be signed in to your Microsoft account on both your PC and your S20. First let's see how to enable the feature on your PC:

1. Select the taskbar search box.

2. Enter Your Phone and hit the first result.

   Source: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central

3. Select Android from the device options list.

4. Choose Link phone to set up the service with your phone.

   Source: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central

That's all you need to do on your PC for now. You can just leave things as is and get started on enabling the service on your S20.

How to set up Link to Windows on your Galaxy S20

Samsung teamed up with Microsoft to pre-install Office and other productivity apps like LinkedIn on all Galaxy phones. In 2019, that partnership extended to include a notification mirroring service that lets you view texts and incoming notifications directly on your PC.

Link to Windows leverages Microsoft's Your Phone Companion app, which is pre-installed on all Galaxy phones. That's how your S20 is able to mirror notifications to your PC. Although the app is installed out of the box, you will need to set it up. Here's how to do so:

1. Open Settings from the home screen.
2. Scroll down to the bottom of the page.

3. Tap Advanced features.

   Source: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central

4. Tap Link to Windows.
5. Select Link your phone and PC.

6. Hit Sign in with Microsoft to sign in to your Microsoft account.

   Source: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central

7. Once you're signed in, you'll need to give the feature access to texts and notifications. Hit Continue to get started.
8. Hit Allow to give the app access to your contacts.

9. Hit Allow once again to let the app manage phone calls.

   Source: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central

10. You'll also need to give it access to storage. Hit Allow once more.
11. Finally, you'll need to give the app access to your texts. Tap Allow to continue.

12. Once you're done, you should automatically see your PC listed. Hit Link your PC to finish setting up Link to Windows.

    Source: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central

Link to Windows is a nifty feature, but there's the obvious privacy issue. You're essentially giving Microsoft unfettered access to your Galaxy S20. That's the tradeoff for the ability to mirror notifications and texts to Windows, and if you're okay with that, it is an incredibly useful feature that works really well.