Windows 11’s Phone Link and Media Player apps are gaining new features.
- Microsoft is testing a pair of new features for two Windows 11 programs: Phone Link and Windows Media Player.
- Phone Link (formerly called Your Phone) is getting a new search bar for the messages tab.
- Windows Media Player has been updated for everyone with faster performance for devices that have huge media collections.
For those uninformed, Microsoft recently changed Your Phone app to ‘Phone Link’ and added a new Windows 11-inspired UI. Microsoft ceased releasing new capabilities to the Your Phone / Phone Link app a while ago as it was busy working on the new interface. It looks like the business has started creating new features for the Phone Link app again.
Microsoft’s Phone Link app on Windows 11 and Windows 10 is gaining some important new capabilities, including a search bar. Similar to the search bar in apps like Mail UWP, Microsoft’s Phone Link now features an updated Messages interface with a search bar that lets you find messages.
As you can see in the above screenshot, the search bar will appear right above the list of messages. You can only search messages that have been synced to Windows 11. In addition to a new search bar, you can also categorize messages into two sections: received recently and hidden.
Microsoft is also increasing the spacing between the notifications tiles in the app in a bid to reduce confusion and clutter. The new option “clear all” lets you dismiss all notifications.
It’s nice to see new improvements heading to the Phone Link app and we’re expecting more tweaks in the coming weeks.
Microsoft is also rolling out a new version 11.2205 of Windows Media Player for Windows 11 in the Dev Channel. This update promises faster performance for users with a huge media collection. Likewise, it is now possible to sort songs and albums in your collection by date added.
The updated albums page in Windows Media Player lets you sort the songs based on the date they were added. Earlier this year, Microsoft added another nifty feature to Media Player – support for CD playback.
The company has also made changes to Media Player’s theme and improvements to the app’s overall ability to drag and drop content. These updates are available to everyone in the Windows Insiders Program and they will begin rolling out to the general public.