- Phone Link gets a new feature to cast Android apps to your desktop (with select phones).
- Nowadays, many apps are stuck in the narrow view of the phone screen (portrait).
- The new Advanced View button, which is currently being tested, allows you to significantly expand the application window
If you use dial-up to connect your smartphone to Windows 11 and occasionally run Android apps on your desktop, you may soon have a way to display those apps in a larger window.
IF Windows Latest emphasizes thisMicrosoft is currently testing a new option for the Phone Link app casting feature (a feature for some smartphones that lets you run Android apps in their own window on your Windows 11 desktop).
It’s an “expanded view” icon at the top right of the window where your Android app is running (next to Minimize). When you click it, the window will be much bigger compared to the small (vertical) view you currently have if you use many apps.
This narrow view of the phone’s screen isn’t ideal on a larger desktop screen, and it’s good to have a wide view even if it’s not full screen (as you can see in the example screen below).
This feature also seems a little strange at the moment in some apps, like Uber, where the app is slightly larger and there are large areas of black background to the left and right of the usable area of the window. The text can also be a bit blurry, which again is not ideal.
However, please note that this feature is still being tested and issues are expected. (Windows Latest notes that the feature was tested in a Windows 11 preview on the Dev channel with version 1.25112.33.0 of the Phone Link app.)
Analysis: solution by duplication
As Windows Latest points out, there are currently tricks you can use to get an Android app limited to the size of a mobile phone screen in portrait mode and turn it into a larger window on the desktop. That is, use screen mirroring (Open phone screen option) with Phone Link and rotate the phone screen to landscape orientation.
However, it would be nice to be able to use app casting and have a simple button to maximize a small window in an Android app with one click.
As mentioned, there appear to be some issues with the current implementation of this feature, but these should be resolved before this developer button is unlocked with the retail version of Phone Link.
The problem is that app streaming is only supported on certain smartphones, including newer Samsung models and Asus ROG, Honor, OnePlus, Oppo and Xiaomi phones. (However, note that regular phone mirroring, a separate feature from app streaming, is more widely supported.)