Phone Link is testing an expanded view option for the apps section, allowing you to increase the view area while using Android apps on your Windows 11 PC. Phone Link has been toying with several ideas, and this is one of the improvements I’ve been waiting for a long time.
Phone Link has an Apps feature, which allows you to share screen of your Android app to the desktop. The Apps feature is available only on select Samsung, HONOR, OPPO, ASUS, vivo, and Xiaomi devices, and my S1 FE is among those.
The biggest letdown while using the Phone Link’s App streaming feature is the inability to maximize the window.
I have a 2K monitor, and whenever I open an app, it appears vertically with a very narrow width. The appearance looks like a phone screen, but it is difficult to use on a monitor.
I previously used a workaround method to maximize the app screen. To do that, I would rotate the phone screen after opening the app and then use the “Open Phone screen” option.
But that only works for apps that support horizontal layout. Uber, for example, doesn’t support horizontal layout, and I cannot use it in that mode.
To combat this problem, Microsoft is testing a new “Expanded” view mode when you launch apps on your PC. It’s a small icon that appears before the minimize button and stretches the app window for better visibility. I upgraded the app to version number 1.25112.33.0 in my Dev Insider machine, after which I could access the new mode.
When I expanded the Uber app, the screen became wider than before. However, the app window covered two-thirds of the display and had a huge black background on both sides. So, it does expand the app view to some extent, but the overall gain in size isn’t what I expected.
Expanded view needs refinement
Most phone apps are tailored to offer a vertical layout experience, and Uber is no exception. Still, some apps like VLC and Amazon can take complete advantage of the maximized view. When I opened VLC in the Phone Link app, it covered the window and didn’t show a thick black background like Uber.
Another noticeable thing is the slightly hazy appearance of apps in Expanded view. The fonts do not increase in size when you switch to the expanded mode, and reading them can be a problem on the big screen.
The expanded window also auto-aligns to the left side of the screen, which is very weird. You cannot maximize it to full screen.
If I compare it with the default app view, the screen and elements look sharper there. I expect the same from the expanded view mode, or it will be a pain to use for extended hours. There’s huge room for improvement if Microsoft wants to release the new Phone Link feature to the stable edition.
