Intel Unison alternatives: what to use now with an iPhone and a Windows PC

Intel Unison was a free app that connected an iPhone or Android phone to a Windows 11 PC. Intel announced its end in April 2025. On June 30, 2025 it stopped working and was removed from download on most PCs; Lenovo Aura Edition PCs kept it until the end of 2025. Since January 1, 2026, Intel no longer offers the app or its drivers and no longer answers support requests about it.

If it's still installed, it won't connect anymore: Intel and PC makers like Dell recommend uninstalling it.

• Calls, text messages and notifications on the PC → Phone Link, built into Windows.
• Sending photos and files between phone and PC → LocalSend, iCloud for Windows, or Phone Link's file sharing.
• Getting a text, a link or a screenshot from the phone to the PC right now → Colurus, or the free online clipboard without an account.

Unison also worked on iPhones, which most phone-to-PC apps don't, and that's what people miss most. Below, each option with what it does on an iPhone.

Phone Link is Microsoft's app, and it comes with Windows. With an iPhone it needs Windows 11, iOS 14 or later and Bluetooth: you pair them once with the Link to Windows app on the iPhone. Then you can take and make calls, read and reply to texts and see your notifications on the PC.

It has limits with an iPhone: texts only arrive while the phone is connected, you can't reply to group chats or send photos in messages, and it doesn't show your photo library. Its newer file sharing sends a file from the iPhone's Share menu. Copy and paste between devices only works with Android.

LocalSend is free and open source, with apps for iPhone, Android, Windows and Mac. It sends photos and files directly between devices on the same Wi-Fi, without an account or the internet. Good for many photos or big videos.

iCloud for Windows is Apple's app for the PC. With iCloud Photos on, your iPhone photos show up in File Explorer after they sync, and iCloud Drive too. It needs your Apple Account and enough iCloud storage (5 GB free).

For a few photos without installing anything, the free page to send photos from iPhone to PC does it with a 6-character code.

Colurus is a clipboard history in the cloud that works on iPhone, Android and PC, in the browser. It fills the gap Phone Link leaves with an iPhone: getting a text, a link, a photo or a screenshot from the phone to the PC, and back, and keeping it until you delete it. It doesn't do calls, messages or notifications.

1. 1Open colurus.com in Safari on the iPhone and in any browser on the PC, and sign in with the same Google account on both.
2. 2On the iPhone, copy something and tap Paste, or tap Choose image for a photo or screenshot. iOS doesn't let apps read the clipboard in the background, so you send each thing with one tap.
3. 3It shows up on the PC right away. Click to copy it, or download the image.
4. 4From the PC, press Ctrl + V in Colurus and tap the card on the iPhone to copy it.

It's the closest thing to a universal clipboard for Windows and iPhone. More on this in clipboard on iPhone.

It's easier: Phone Link does more with Android (recent photos, and copy and paste on some brands), Quick Share works with Windows, and Colurus can save straight from Android's Share menu. See every option in how to copy and paste between Android and Windows.

• Calls, texts and notifications on the PC: Phone Link.
• Lots of photos or videos: LocalSend on the same Wi-Fi, or iCloud for Windows.
• Texts, links, screenshots and photos from the iPhone to the PC every day, kept and searchable: Colurus.

Most people who used Unison with an iPhone end up with Phone Link plus one of the others.