Phone Link Group Chat - Ongoing Issue

Hello, Yossarian99

Welcome to Microsoft Community.

Sounds like a compatibility issue. Have you tried using it on different computers and phones? How did that go?

Phone Link is pretty basic and could use some optimization. You might want to give feedback to the developers so they know what issues you're facing:

How to send feedback to Microsoft with the Feedback Hub app - Microsoft Support

If you're looking for a better cross-platform group chat experience, you could try third-party apps like WhatsApp or Telegram. These work well across different operating systems. Also, Apple's iMessage and Android's Google Messages can be used on computers too. For iMessage on Windows 11, you can use Intel Unison, and Google Messages can be accessed through a web browser.

Yuhao L

Microsoft Community Technical Support

Funny this reply came through after a moderator deleted my post because it was a duplicate. MS doesn't want to be reminded of an ongoing issue that hasn't been addressed?

Yuhao L,

• The issue presents itself on my PC(s), i.e. more than one.

• I've given feedback before without response or results.

• The suggestion to go outside of the MS ecosystem for a better experience is priceless!

Thank you.

Yossarian99

Hello, Yossarian99

Funny this reply came through after a moderator deleted my post because it was a duplicate.

Microsoft Community Code of Conduct - Microsoft Community

No matter how many times you post, only one will stay up.

MS doesn't want to be reminded of an ongoing issue that hasn't been addressed?

Microsoft Community is a place where users help each other out. The Microsoft agents and volunteers replying to your posts are just users with titles—they're not developers and don't represent the developers. Developers don't hang out in Microsoft Community, and it's not the place to submit feedback. That's what the Feedback Hub in Windows is for. Even if you think the community is a way to reach developers, while it's not actually, posting the same issue multiple times won't get their attention.

I've given feedback before without response or results.

If one attempt doesn't work, try submitting feedback multiple times. This is the same on any platform—just because you submit feedback doesn't mean you'll get an immediate, perfect solution. Users have all sorts of requests and they all think their opinions should be prioritized, but developers can't instantly solve every problem perfectly.

The suggestion to go outside of the MS ecosystem for a better experience is priceless!

Again, right now, is there a simple, immediate, direct and perfect solution that everyone can accept? No. So, the best alternative is to use third-party programs. If you don't want to use alternatives, then there's no solution for now.

Yuhao L

Microsoft Community Technical Support

I'll keep this simple. The phone link app worked with group texts previously, why has it stopped? No intelligent answer has been offered except to not use it.

Brilliant.

Hello, Yossarian99

It's not surprising for software to have unexpected issues after an update. Why would Phone Link be any different? That's why it's necessary to give feedback to the developers.

Yuhao L

Microsoft Community Technical Support

Also, if you had told me earlier that the previous versions were fine, we wouldn't have to go through all this. Just follow these steps to roll back to an older version of Phone Link and give it a try:

Phone Link and "Link to Windows" suddenly not working after years just - Microsoft Community

I am having the same issue. It worked fine for over a year on group chats, then recently it started to duplicate them to the other members of the group. But, what I typed on my computer did not show up on my phone and what I typed on my phone did not show up on my computer.

I'm having the same issue. When responding to a group message using my computer, a new group message is created. My response doesn't show up as a part of the original thread. It works properly when responding using my phone. This started happening sometime within the last few weeks. I consider phone link useless until this gets fixed.

It's supposed to be surprising when software is released with bugs.

Jesus, man, Microsoft is worth hundreds of billions of dollars.

Another of the ongoing Phone Link issues just popped up.

Received a group text while using Phone Link, the text shows three users, the third is a random string of characters not associated with the chat group. Refer to the attached pic. Looking at my phone it only has the 2 original recipients. I can respond to the group on my phone just fine, but not with Phone Link.

The potential solution provided above by a agent/mod was to download something from an unknown link to try a backdoor fix. Something MS itself warns not to do. All of my MS products and services are legitimately bought and paid for. Yet I have to goof around with rolling back updates, and spend time on forums to fix their software. Sad it is.