com.microsoft.appmanager Copy

"Link to Windows", made by Microsoft. It is the Android half of a pair: Link to Windows runs on the phone and Phone Link runs on the Windows PC, and together they bring content and capabilities from the phone across to the desktop. Microsoft states that it comes preinstalled on selected Samsung, HONOR, Surface Duo and OPPO devices running Android 9 or later, and that other phones can install it from the Play Store on Android 7 or later. Provenance on this site backs that up and widens it. The package carries a single consistent Microsoft third-party signing certificate, and it was observed preinstalled across HONOR, OPPO, OnePlus, Xiaomi, Samsung and vivo devices in our sample, so on those devices it is a genuine third-party preinstall rather than an OEM-built system component. It was reported as an updated system app on every device profile that recorded it, meaning a newer build had been installed over the copy in the system image; Microsoft separately documents the app as available from the Play Store. For Android Enterprise, EMM and kiosk deployments, no platform or enrolment role was identified for it in the cited documentation, which describes an optional phone-to-PC companion app. That is not proof that no OEM component on a given handset hooks into it, so confirm on your target hardware before rolling a block out at scale. What it does provide is a route for phone content to reach a personally owned or unmanaged Windows PC, which is worth an explicit decision on a corporate device rather than leaving to the user. Because it is preinstalled, an EMM handles it as a system app: in Intune it is added as an Android Enterprise system app by package name and assigned as Uninstall to disable it, or Required to enable it. Note Microsoft's stated limitation that an Android Enterprise system app entry cannot be created when the same app is already present in Managed Google Play in Intune, which is a live constraint for a Play-distributed app such as this one. We found no sourced change to its role tied to a particular Android release; the app is versioned on Microsoft's own schedule.

• Introducing Microsoft Phone Link and Link to Windows - Microsoft Support →
• Manage Android Enterprise System Apps in Microsoft Intune - Microsoft Learn →
• Package provenance for com.microsoft.appmanager - Android System App Database →

• Signed by a third-party certificate (carrier or partner), not stock AOSP or Google - Microsoft, and that single certificate is consistent across all 15 device profiles.
• Its largest observed manifest declares 80 permissions: 20 runtime (user-granted), 11 signature or system-level, 25 install-time and 24 vendor or uncatalogued.
• Reported as an updated system app on 15 of 15 profiles - a newer build is installed over the one in the system image there.