Microsoft has announced that it’s releasing an update for the Your Phone app from today (April 1) on PCs with Windows 11, which includes a new name – Phone Links – and a redesign that lines it up with other updated Windows 11 apps.
The Your Phone app has been a useful tool since its release in October 2018. It enables you to link up your Android phone with a Windows PC, where you can sync up your contacts, messages, and some apps that are compatible.
The new Phone Links app, available as a new update as well as a companion app on the Google Play Store, features the same new design that Paint and Windows Media Player have been given in other updates to Windows 11.
However, the new name has already proved to be divisive, and makes us wonder if Microsoft is coming up with these terrible names on purpose.
Analysis: Another bad name from Microsoft
Microsoft has had a reputation over the years for having terrible names for its products. Whether it’s Zune for its iPod-rival, or the Kin phone, which sounded outdated as soon as it launched back in 2010.
Microsoft’s most recent naming confusion had been its Xbox Series consoles. Released back in November 2020, the Series S and the Series X made gamers wonder what the letters stood for. Microsoft still hasn’t explained the reasoning, and probably never will.
Considering the Xbox has had ‘360’ and ‘One’ to mark major releases, it’s probably best to just go with the flow when it comes to Microsoft’s gaming names.
To be fair, Your Phone wasn’t exactly a good name to start with – users just accepted it, mainly due to how good the app has consistently been.
But, Phone Links carries on Microsoft’s terrible naming tradition. Granted, your PC does link up with your Android phone, but it makes the name feel a bit on-the-nose.
Name it WinPair, Continuity, or Matchup, just to give the app some excitement at least.
But regardless, the app looks better thanks to its Windows 11 redesign, and there’s still plenty of opportunities for how the app could improve for Android users in the future, especially with apps from the Amazon App Store coming to Windows 11 soon.
