Microsoft’s ‘Phone Link’ app delivers some – but not all – of Apple’s iMessage features to Windows

In Microsoft’s Windows 11, users will soon be able to send and receive Apple iMessages – with important caveats – directly from their crappy Windows PCs.
Apple’s Messages icon
Austin Carr for Bloomberg News:

Microsoft used a sort of workaround to get the text messages. The result isn’t as complete as the Messages app on a Mac; the Windows version doesn’t support group messages, photos or video.
Here’s how it works: Using a Microsoft app called Phone Link, users can sync their mobile devices via Bluetooth. Texts sent from the computer are relayed to the iPhone, which sends them as iMessages. Incoming texts are transmitted wirelessly back to the PC from the iPhone.
The technology isn’t exactly a revelation. Some cars have offered similar functionality for years. But the arrival on Windows will be a welcome convenience for many people.
Again, Phone Link is not a full substitution for a proper iMessage app. When pressed on whether Apple will make iMessage available on other platforms, Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook has demurred. “I don’t hear our users asking that we put a lot of energy in on that at this point,” he said last September.

MacDailyNews Take: Half-assed trash. Which ought to be Microsoft’s motto.
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