The service, released in conjunction with the launch of Windows Phone 7 on October 21, 2010, provides users with a free mobile phone back-up solution by wirelessly synchronizing contacts, calendar appointments, photos, and OneNote notebooks with a various tightly integrated Windows Live services including Outlook.com People and Calendar, and Microsoft OneDrive.

Users can access and manage their information stored on their Windows Phone devices via a password protected online portal using their Microsoft account.

[1] Similar phone finder services under various names are available for other families of smartphones.

A similar service for Windows Mobile devices was available with Microsoft My Phone, withdrawn in 2011.

The service was updated on September 27, 2011 in conjunction with the release of Windows Phone 7.5 "Mango" update, adding support for Microsoft Scrapbook and account management features including viewing app purchase history and reinstall apps from the Windows Phone Store.