Phone Link companion on Windows 11's Start menu is just getting more useful

Remember when Microsoft first tested a Phone Link companion for Windows 11’s Start menu? Well, it seems like the feature will soon be more useful than ever.

Folks in the Windows 11 insider community have spotted a neat little change: you’ll see options like “Send to phone” on the bottom of the companion, along with other options like “Open Phone Link,” “Open phone screen,” “Customize recent activity,” and “Start settings.”

Here’s what it looks like, courtesy of the eagle-eyed insider:

Before that, such options were nonexistent, at least when Microsoft first shipped the companion a while ago. With the Phone Link companion, you can access your phone’s battery status, messages, calls, and photos directly from the Start menu, on both Android and iOS devices.

Microsoft has just launched a double Windows 11 build—for both Dev and Beta channels—not too long ago (KB5044388 & KB5044386, respectively) where this feature is likely to be spotted. The Redmond company first tested the Phone Link companion on the Start menu a while ago, as strings of code that we reported a while ago.

The Start menu’s companion lets you add custom widgets, which can appear on either side of the menu. Any app can create a Companion using a simple JSON file, even though only two Companions can be displayed at once. It does make the Start Menu more customizable though, similar to the Live Tiles from Windows 10.

Speaking of the Dev and Beta channel updates, the Redmond tech giant also continued with its testing of the Countdown & Timer widgets for the Clock app, as well as the new functionality for the Copilot key.