Use apps from your Android device on your PC

With Your Phone apps, you can instantly access the Android apps installed on your mobile device right on your PC. Using a Wi-Fi connection, Apps allows you to browse, play, order, chat, and more – all while using your PC’s larger screen and keyboard. You can add your Android apps as favorites on your PC, pin them to your Start menu and taskbar, and open them in separate windows to use side-by-side with apps on your PC – helping you stay productive.

Note: For the best experience, we recommend making sure your Android device and PC are on the same Wi-Fi network and band. Some Wi-Fi networks offer different connection bands, like a 5 GHz or 2.4 GHz band. Make sure both your devices are connected to the same one. Learn more about how to do that in our Wi-Fi troubleshooting help.

How do I interact with apps?

You can use your PC’s mouse, trackpad, keyboard, pen or touch-enabled screen to open, type, scroll, and interact with apps. A few tips for using your mouse and keyboard:

Single click will behave the same as any single touch/tap interaction

Right click anywhere on your phone screen to navigate to the previous page

Click and hold will behave the same as a tap/hold interaction

Click and hold and drag to select content

Mouse scroll to move between pages vertically or horizontally

Some games and apps might not work with a mouse or keyboard. You’ll need to use a touch-enabled PC to interact with them.

If you’re encountering issues using Apps, our troubleshooting tips may help.

How do I know I’m using the multiple apps experience?

The requirements for using multiple apps are:

A PC running the Windows 10 May 2020 Update or later. For best performance, we recommend having at least 8GB of RAM.

An Android device running Android 11.0.

On your Android device, you need Link to Windows version 2.1.05.6 or higher, or Your Phone Companion version 1.20104.15.0 or higher.

Your Phone versions 1.20104.20.0 or higher.

How do I pin Android apps into Windows?

You can pin your Android apps to the Windows Start menu, taskbar, or add it to Your Phone app favorites.

To pin an app on your PC:

Open the Your Phone app

Right click on the app icon you want to pin or add to your favorites

How do I remove pinned Android apps from my Windows taskbar or Start menu?

If you’ve pinned an app to your taskbar, just right-click the app icon and select Unpin from taskbar.

If you’ve added an app to your Windows start menu, you’ll need to uninstall the app from your apps list. Go to Windows Settings > Apps & features, search for your app in the list. Select it, then select Uninstall.

Are the apps from my Android device now installed on my PC?

No, apps you open will be running from your Android device. The Your Phone app is mirroring apps from your Android device to your PC, meaning you’ll see the same thing on your PC that’s being displayed on your Android device.

Can I access Android apps without linking my device?

No, you need to connect your Android device to your PC via the Your Phone app in order to use this experience. Learn more about how to set up Apps here.

Can I open multiple apps at the same time?

If you have Android 11 on your Android device and one of these select Samsung devices, yes. For most other Android devices, you can only open one Android app at a time.

Test on an Android device or emulator

There are several ways to test and debug your Android application using a real device or emulator on your Windows machine. We have outlined a few recommendations in this guide.

Run on a real Android device

To run your app on a real Android device, you will first need to enable your Android device for development. Developer options on Android have been hidden by default since version 4.2 and enabling them can vary based on the Android version.

Enable your device for development

For a device running a recent version of Android 9.0+:

1. Connect your device to your Windows development machine with a USB cable. You may receive a notification to install a USB driver.
2. Open the Settings screen on your Android device.
3. Select About phone.
4. Scroll to the bottom and tap Build number seven times, until You are now a developer! is visible.
5. Return to the previous screen, select System.
6. Select Advanced, scroll to the bottom, and tap Developer options.
7. In the Developer options window, scroll down to find and enable USB debugging.

For a device running an older version of Android, see Set Up Device for Development.

Run your app on the device

In the Android Studio toolbar, select your app from the run configurations drop-down menu.

From the target device drop-down menu, select the device that you want to run your app on.

Select Run в–·. This will launch the app on your connected device.

Run your app on a virtual Android device using an emulator

The first thing to know about running an Android emulator on your Windows machine is that regardless of your IDE (Android Studio, Visual Studio, etc), emulator performance is vastly improved by enabling virtualization support.

Enable virtualization support

Before creating a virtual device with the Android emulator, it is recommended that you enable virtualization by turning on the Hyper-V and Windows Hypervisor Platform (WHPX) features. This will allow your computer’s processor to significantly improve the execution speed of the emulator.

To run Hyper-V and Windows Hypervisor Platform, your computer must:

• Have 4GB of memory available
• Have a 64-bit Intel processor or AMD Ryzen CPU with Second Level Address Translation (SLAT)
• Be running Windows 10 build 1803+ (Check your build #)
• Have updated graphics drivers (Device Manager > Display adapters > Update driver)

If your machine doesn’t fit this criteria, you may be able to run Intel HAXM or AMD Hypervisor. For more info, see the article: Hardware acceleration for emulator performance or the Android Studio Emulator documentation.

Verify that your computer hardware and software is compatible with Hyper-V by opening a command prompt and entering the command: systeminfo

In the Windows search box (lower left), enter «windows features». Select Turn Windows features on or off from the search results.

Once the Windows Features list appears, scroll to find Hyper-V (includes both Management Tools and Platform) and Windows Hypervisor Platform, ensure that the box is checked to enable both, then select OK.

Restart your computer when prompted.

Emulator for native development with Android Studio

When building and testing a native Android app, we recommend using Android Studio. Once your app is ready for testing, you can build and run your app by:

In the Android Studio toolbar, select your app from the run configurations drop-down menu.

From the target device drop-down menu, select the device that you want to run your app on.

Select Run в–·. This will launch the Android Emulator.

Once your app is installed on the emulator device, you can use Apply Changes to deploy certain code and resource changes without building a new APK.

Emulator for cross-platform development with Visual Studio

There are many Android emulator options available for Windows PCs. We recommend using Google’s Android emulator, as it offers access to the latest Android OS images and Google Play services.

Install Android emulator with Visual Studio

If you don’t already have it installed, download Visual Studio 2019. Use the Visual Studio Installer to Modify your workloads and ensure that you have the Mobile development with .NET workload.

Create a new project. Once you’ve set up the Android Emulator, you can use the Android Device Manager to create, duplicate, customize, and launch a variety of Android virtual devices. Launch the Android Device Manager from the Tools menu with: Tools > Android > Android Device Manager.

Once the Android Device Manager opens, select + New to create a new device.

You will need to give the device a name, choose the base device type from a drop-down menu, choose a processor, and OS version, along with several other variables for the virtual device. For more information, Android Device Manager Main Screen.

In the Visual Studio toolbar, choose between Debug (attaches to the application process running inside the emulator after your app starts) or Release mode (disables the debugger). Then choose a virtual device from the device drop-down menu and select the Play button в–· to run your application in the emulator.

Supported devices for Your Phone app experiences

As we share new features for the Your Phone app, some of them are dependent on the operating system or type of device you have. Please check the list below to determine if your device is eligible for these experiences.

Currently Link to Windows is only available on the following Android devices in select markets:

Recently released devices:

Samsung Galaxy Fold

Samsung Galaxy Note20 5G

Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G

Samsung Galaxy S21 5G

Samsung Galaxy S21+ 5G

Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G

Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5G

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G

Other eligible devices:

Samsung Galaxy S10e

Samsung Galaxy A8s

Samsung Galaxy A30s

Samsung Galaxy A31

Samsung Galaxy A32

Samsung Galaxy A32 5G

Samsung Galaxy A40

Samsung Galaxy A41

Samsung Galaxy A42 5G

Samsung Galaxy A50

Samsung Galaxy A50s

Samsung Galaxy A51

Samsung Galaxy A51 5G

Samsung Galaxy A52

Samsung Galaxy A52 5G

Samsung Galaxy A60

Samsung Galaxy A70

Samsung Galaxy A70s

Samsung Galaxy A71

Samsung Galaxy A71 5G

Samsung Galaxy A72

Samsung Galaxy A80

Samsung Galaxy A90s

Samsung Galaxy A90 5G

Samsung Galaxy Note9

Samsung Galaxy Note10

Samsung Galaxy Note10+

Samsung Galaxy Note10 Lite

Samsung Galaxy S9

Samsung Galaxy S9+

Samsung Galaxy S10

Samsung Galaxy S10+

Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite

Samsung Galaxy S20

Samsung Galaxy S20+

Samsung Galaxy S20 FE

Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra

Samsung Galaxy Xcover 5

Phone screen is available on Android devices in select markets running Android 9.0 or greater that have Link to Windows installed (for some devices, it may be preinstalled). These phones include:

Recently released devices:

Samsung Galaxy Fold

Samsung Galaxy Note20 5G

Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G

Samsung Galaxy S21 5G

Samsung Galaxy S21+ 5G

Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G

Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5G

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G

Other eligible devices:

Samsung Galaxy A8s

Samsung Galaxy A30s

Samsung Galaxy A31

Samsung Galaxy A32

Samsung Galaxy A32 5G

Samsung Galaxy A40

Samsung Galaxy A41

Samsung Galaxy A42 5G

Samsung Galaxy A50

Samsung Galaxy A50s

Samsung Galaxy A51

Samsung Galaxy A51 5G

Samsung Galaxy A52

Samsung Galaxy A52 5G

Samsung Galaxy A60

Samsung Galaxy A70

Samsung Galaxy A70s

Samsung Galaxy A71

Samsung Galaxy A71 5G

Samsung Galaxy A72

Samsung Galaxy A80

Samsung Galaxy A90s

Samsung Galaxy A90 5G

Samsung Galaxy Note9

Samsung Galaxy Note10

Samsung Galaxy Note10+

Samsung Galaxy Note10 Lite

Samsung Galaxy S9

Samsung Galaxy S9+

Samsung Galaxy S10

Samsung Galaxy S10+

Samsung Galaxy S10e

Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite

Samsung Galaxy S20

Samsung Galaxy S20+

Samsung Galaxy S20 FE

Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra

Samsung Galaxy A72

Apps is available on Android devices in select markets running Android 9.0 or greater that have Link to Windows installed. If your Android device is running Android 11.0¹ or higher, you may be eligible for the multiple apps experience. Those devices have an asterisk* next to them.

Recently released devices:

Samsung Galaxy Fold*

Samsung Galaxy Note20 5G*

Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G*

Samsung Galaxy S21 5G*

Samsung Galaxy S21+ 5G*

Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G*

Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip*

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5G*

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G*

Other eligible devices:

Samsung Galaxy A8s

Samsung Galaxy A30s

Samsung Galaxy A31

Samsung Galaxy A40

Samsung Galaxy A41

Samsung Galaxy A42 5G

Samsung Galaxy A50

Samsung Galaxy A50s

Samsung Galaxy A51

Samsung Galaxy A51 5G

Samsung Galaxy A60

Samsung Galaxy A70

Samsung Galaxy A70s

Samsung Galaxy A71

Samsung Galaxy A71 5G

Samsung Galaxy A80

Samsung Galaxy A90s

Samsung Galaxy A90 5G

Samsung Galaxy Note9

Samsung Galaxy Note10*

Samsung Galaxy Note10+*

Samsung Galaxy Note10 Lite*

Samsung Galaxy S9

Samsung Galaxy S9+

Samsung Galaxy S10

Samsung Galaxy S10+

Samsung Galaxy S10e

Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite

Samsung Galaxy S20*

Samsung Galaxy S20+*

Samsung Galaxy S20 FE*

Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra*

¹ Android 11 availability depends on your mobile device, market availability, and your mobile provider.

Samsung Note10 series

Samsung Galaxy Note20 series

Samsung Galaxy S10 series

Samsung Galaxy S20 series

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip

RCS messaging availability is varied

Whether RCS messaging is available to you also depends on the mobile operator network that you use and the country you live in.