{"id":256044,"date":"2026-05-26T13:32:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T17:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/26\/stop-squinting-at-your-iphone-heres-how-to-use-apple-messages-on-a-windows-pc\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T13:40:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T17:40:24","slug":"stop-squinting-at-your-iphone-heres-how-to-use-apple-messages-on-a-windows-pc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/26\/stop-squinting-at-your-iphone-heres-how-to-use-apple-messages-on-a-windows-pc\/","title":{"rendered":"Stop Squinting at Your iPhone. Here&#8217;s How to Use Apple Messages on a Windows PC"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcmag.com\/how-to\/stop-squinting-at-your-iphone-how-to-use-apple-messages-on-windows-pc\">Stop Squinting at Your iPhone. Here&#8217;s How to Use Apple Messages on a Windows PC<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcmag.com\/how-to\/stop-squinting-at-your-iphone-how-to-use-apple-messages-on-windows-pc\">https:\/\/www.pcmag.com\/how-to\/stop-squinting-at-your-iphone-how-to-use-apple-messages-on-windows-pc<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Publish Date: <a href=\"publish_date]\">2026-05-26 13:32:00<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source Domain: <a href=\"www.pcmag.com\">www.pcmag.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>As an iPhone owner, I rely on Apple Messages for texting. But writing and reading texts on my phone&#8217;s small screen can be a hassle, so I often turn to my Mac&#8217;s larger monitor and its built-in iMessages app. On a Windows PC, however, I use Microsoft&#8217;s Phone Link app.<\/p>\n<p>For this to work, you\u2019ll need a Microsoft account, the Phone Link app on your Windows PC, and Microsoft&#8217;s Link to Windows app on your iPhone. You&#8217;ll pair the devices, which will provide access to your iPhone&#8217;s text messages and contacts on your Windows PC, though there are some limits (more on that below). Here&#8217;s how to get started.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"set-up-phone-link\">Set Up Phone Link<\/h2>\n<p>Launch Phone Link from its shortcut in the <strong>Apps <\/strong>section of the Windows 11 Start menu. The first screen asks if you\u2019re setting up an Android phone or an iPhone. Click <strong>iPhone<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>\n    (Credit: PCMag \/ Microsoft)\n<\/p>\n<p>The next screen prompts you to pair your devices using Bluetooth. You can do this manually, but scanning the displayed QR code is easier. Scan the code with your iPhone\u2019s camera and tap the <strong>Pair your devices<\/strong> link on your phone.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/i.pcmag.com\/imagery\/articles\/06hPFhraNLndatcz2gIAfyZ-2.png\" data-lazy-sized=\"\" alt=\"Scan the QR code\" data-image-path=\"articles\/06hPFhraNLndatcz2gIAfyZ-2.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n    (Credit: PCMag \/ Microsoft \/ Apple)\n<\/p>\n<p>On your phone, tap the <strong>Open<\/strong> button<strong> <\/strong>to launch the Link to Windows app and then tap <strong>Continue<\/strong>. Tap <strong>Allow<\/strong> to give Link to Windows permission to find Bluetooth devices. You\u2019ll then see prompts to pair your devices on both your PC and your iPhone. Select the <strong>Pair<\/strong> button on both devices.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/i.pcmag.com\/imagery\/articles\/06hPFhraNLndatcz2gIAfyZ-3.png\" data-lazy-sized=\"\" alt=\"Give Link to Windows permission to find Bluetooth devices\" data-image-path=\"articles\/06hPFhraNLndatcz2gIAfyZ-3.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n    (Credit: PCMag \/ Apple)\n<\/p>\n<p>As your devices are paired, you may see a notice asking you to allow your PC to receive notifications from your phone. Tap <strong>Allow<\/strong>. You\u2019ll then see a notice on both your PC and phone that your devices are paired.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/i.pcmag.com\/imagery\/articles\/06hPFhraNLndatcz2gIAfyZ-5.png\" data-lazy-sized=\"\" alt=\"Allow your PC to receive notifications from your phone\" data-image-path=\"articles\/06hPFhraNLndatcz2gIAfyZ-5.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n    (Credit: PCMag \/ Apple)\n<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"link-your-microsoft-account-and-set-permissions\">Link Your Microsoft Account and Set Permissions<\/h2>\n<p>Next, you&#8217;re prompted to link your iPhone to your Microsoft account. Tap <strong>Continue<\/strong>. If you haven\u2019t already done so, sign in to your Microsoft account when prompted. You\u2019re then asked to allow Link to Windows to send you notifications when a file is sent from your&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcmag.com\/how-to\/stop-squinting-at-your-iphone-how-to-use-apple-messages-on-windows-pc\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Stop Squinting at Your iPhone. Here&#8217;s How to Use Apple Messages on a Windows PC&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":256045,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.pcmag.com\/imagery\/articles\/06hPFhraNLndatcz2gIAfyZ-15.fit_lim.size_1200x630.v1779130355.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[120],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-256044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-iphone"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256044"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256044"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256044\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":256046,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256044\/revisions\/256046"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}