Microsoft is working on a useful upgrade to Phone Link that addresses one of the most annoying aspects of streaming Android apps on Windows 11. A new expanded view option lets you expand Android apps beyond the narrow, phone-sized window that users have been stuck with for years. It’s introduced with the latest Phone Link update (version 1.25112.33.0) and is intended to make apps look more natural on larger monitors.
What the expanded view actually does
Phone Link has always streamed Android apps in a slim portrait format that mimics your phone, no matter how large your PC display is. Some users have rotated their phone screens and switched to the Open Phone Screen option as a workaround, but this only helps with apps that support landscape mode. This isn’t the case with apps like Uber, causing them to get stuck in an uncomfortable layout.
According to Windows Latest, the new expanded view adds a small icon next to the window controls. Tapping it expands the app to take up more space on your desktop. It works best with apps that already support larger screens. For example, VLC and Amazon scale cleanly and fill the window, while Uber still displays thick black bars on both sides because it is only designed to be arranged vertically. WhatsApp performs better because the Android version already has tablet-style optimization.
The catch is that the zoomed view doesn’t increase the font resolution, so when stretched the text might look a bit blurry and the window still won’t maximize. By default it even snaps to the left edge, which feels a bit strange. It’s not perfect yet, but the update brings Phone Link closer to a better desktop-style Android experience and makes it something you can rely on more often.
In other Windows 11 news, Microsoft is also rolling out some handy upgrades to improve day-to-day usage. Updating and removing apps is getting easier, copying and pasting gets new privacy protections, and a new theme panel that brings personalizing your PC a little closer to personalizing a phone.
