Android 15 came with new privacy features that flag certain notifications as “sensitive,” such as two-factor authentication (2FA) codes and sensitive banking communications. These sorts of notifications get obscured from suspicious apps through the notification listener API, which among other things features Microsoft’s Phone Link app. This new switch disabled Phone Link’s ability to mirror sensitive notices from Android handsets to Windows PCs, much to the inconvenience of users that rely on the app for effortless communication between devices.
Microsoft has introduced a workaround to address this issue. The solution is to give Phone Link the companion device role, which removes the limitations and allows it to receive sensitive notifications. The workaround is only available on devices that preinstall the Link to Windows app by the manufacturer. The workaround can be successfully implemented using smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra and Xiaomi 15 Ultra. For devices that lack preinstalled support, users are limited unless they disable permissions or turn off some Android features such as Enhanced Notifications.
The problem is that Google decided to prioritize privacy by restricting untrusted apps’ access to sensitive notification content. While this offers greater protection against malicious apps, it also sacrifices user convenience receiving 2FA codes, for instance, directly on PCs via Phone Link. Sensitive notifications are instead substituted with a generic message “sensitive notification content hidden” so that users have to go manually check their phones.
Evident solutions are turning off Enhanced Notifications or providing permissions manually but these come at a cost in terms of offering fewer advanced features for notifications or exposing oneself to malicious applications. Microsoft continues improving Phone Link functionality through updates as well as its collaboration with Android manufacturers to implement compatibility with altering privacy requirements by Android.
In spite of these problems, Phone Link remains a convenient utility for call, message, and file management between Windows PCs and Android phones. Google’s privacy enhancements, however, highlight the ongoing trade-off between convenience and security in mobile platforms.
