How to Control Your Music and Podcasts Directly from Your PC using Phone Link

Phone Link audio controls let you pause tracks, skip songs, and adjust the volume on your phone straight from your Windows 11 desktop taskbar without picking up your device. This feature requires Phone Link version 1.22082.50.0 or newer and works with your favorite listening apps.

Get Your Apps Ready

Setting up phone link music control requires turning on app notifications on your Android device so Windows can detect what is playing. Open Settings ⚙️ on your phone, tap Notifications, find your music or podcast app in the list, and make sure notifications are turned on. This allows the Phone Link app to read the media alerts.

Open Settings ⚙️ on your Android device and tap Notifications.

Locate your preferred audio app—such as Spotify, Pocket Casts, or YouTube Music—and make sure the switch next to Show notifications is active.

Good Tip: Even if you don’t want other alerts from an app, enabling its main notification setting allows Phone Link’s audio playback controls to function.

Turn On Audio Controls in Phone Link on Your PC

Enabling phone link music control on your computer takes just a few clicks inside the Phone Link settings menu. Open the Phone Link app on your Windows PC, click the gear icon for settings, go to Personalization, and switch on the option that shows audio currently playing from your phone. This makes the music player appear.

Open the Phone Link app on your Windows computer.

Click the gear icon in the Phone Link interface to open the Settings menu.

Under the Personalization section, look for an option labeled Show audio currently playing from my phone.

Turn the switch next to this option to On.

What Happens When It's All Set Up

Using phone link music control puts a dedicated media player right on your computer screen whenever audio plays on your phone. The player includes standard buttons for previous track, play, pause, and next track. If you play audio from multiple apps, you can easily switch between them using the dropdown menu inside the player.

• Previous Track
• Play/Pause
• Next Track

Managing multiple audio sources—such as music from one app and a podcast from another—requires using the dropdown menu within the Phone Link player. Start playback from the new source on your phone, and Phone Link updates automatically.

Reference:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/additional-features-and-settings-in-phone-link-896a3bb1-97b8-4ba5-a56e-98490573721d

Summary

The Phone Link app lets you control your Android phone's music and podcasts directly from your PC. Ensure your phone's audio apps display notifications and that you have enabled the audio playing setting in the Phone Link app on your computer for basic playback controls.