12 ms·

KDE Connect: Enabling communication between all your devices

234 points by Jiejeing 5y ago

Proven 5y ago
What could possibly go wrong....
corty 5y ago
This is underappreciated. So useful. Just works. Can do almost anything. I think KDE in general needs better marketing. It is by far the best desktop environment available.
- Jiejeing 5y ago
  I am not a huge fan of the KDE desktop experience, but KDE Connect among others is something that provides an amazing value.
- peterrus 5y ago
  Works great on Gnome as well, with this extension: https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/1319/gsconnect/ https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/1319/gsconnect/
- ChuckNorris89 5y ago
  >KDE in general needs better marketing But how would the KDE community do that without spending money?
  - azangru 5y ago
    Through blog posts and videos? ;-) Cool things that KDE can do, or how to be productive with KDE.
- ognarb 5y ago
  About your point about a better marketing, as a KDE developer and member of the small KDE Promo team, I completely agree with you. Unfortunately like most of open sources projects, our budgets and manpower is very small. If someone is interested to help our promo team, feel free to join: https://community.kde.org/Get_Involved#Promotion https://community.kde.org/Get_Involved#Promotion. We always need more help with writing and proofreading announcement texts, maintaining the websites, doing videos, writing tweets/toots, ...
  - solarkraft 5y ago
    The fediverse presence is fairly nice!
  - Zancarius 5y ago
    I absolutely love what you guys do. One of the unfortunate things I run into on social media is this idiotic perception that KDE is bloated and cumbersome, then when you drill down into the argument, you often find that these same people haven't used it for 10-15 years. I'm not sure how you can fix branding perceptions that are based on fallacious experiences that weren't updated in the last decade, but I think some manner of user evangelism can also help!
    - ghostpepper 5y ago
      If a person used KDE 10 years ago and it was bloated, and I haven't used it since, I don't think it's fair (or helpful for that matter) to use terms like 'idiotic' when trying to convince someone to give the project a second chance.
      - bluGill 5y ago
        KDE has always been the most bloated in the initial install. However when you actually try to do something you discover that whatever the environment they are all about as big, with KDE being the smallest since they trade initial bloat for in use leanness.
      - nmstoker 5y ago
        Their use of the term is not meant personally I'm sure, but for anyone applying insights that are ten years out of date in a fairly rapidly changing field of software like this, they are hardly going to win awards for being smart are they? This happens too much with software - look at various open source filesystems that had reliability issues in the early days (which is pretty reasonable), someone writes a piece that highlights this and years later people are still parroting it as current insight - with the downside being that it can crush a project and thus in time make a self fulfilling legacy.
    - 5y ago
- aantix 5y ago
  Can I send/receive the same messages I received on my iPhone? Similar to the OSX message app? Agree on the better marketing. It wasn't obvious from the website.
  - smoldesu 5y ago
    > Can I send/receive the same messages I received on my iPhone? Nope. Apple doesn't extend their messaging protocols to developers like that. But it does work perfectly fine on Android! There's both a QT5 and GTK interface for it, both of which are pretty fully featured and actively developed, and it syncs with your phones messages over WiFi or Bluetooth.
- Blackthorn 5y ago
  Indeed, better marketing would be good. I was so burned on the KDE 3->4 transition I haven't been back since, even though that was a very long time ago. And clearly from the article, they're doing some pretty fantastic stuff now! Gotta get in and try it out again!
  - ajyotirmay 5y ago
    You missed out on the Plasma5 transition. It surprises me how no one eyed Gnomr for the mess Gnome 3 was. Gnome 40 is a mess as well, trying to reinvent the UX. But KDE's desktop gets criticized for what it was when it tried 3D graphics at a time when Qt wasn't ready.
    - Blackthorn 5y ago
      I don't use gnome, so I have no knowledge there. Just going my experience of going from what I considered the perfect desktop (KDE3) to what I considered a major downgrade. I'm glad KDE is good again!
luke2m 5y ago
Now will someone port this to iOS?
- ognarb 5y ago
  There is a GSoC project about it :) https://community.kde.org/GSoC/2021/Ideas#Project:_KDE_Connect_for_iOS https://community.kde.org/GSoC/2021/Ideas#Project:_KDE_Conne...
  - luke2m 5y ago
    Nice! Hope it gets done.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- dhosek 5y ago
  I spent a few minutes on the site trying to see what was supported and saw nothing. I have a passing awareness of KDE so I could assume that the desktop platform was Linux, but the mobile platform was not specified anywhere in my initial searching. I have to admit I didn't dedicate a lot of time to that though, since I have no interest in running desktop Linux.
  - luke2m 5y ago
    KDE connect works on macOS too.
    - dhosek 5y ago
      Which actually makes the information lack even worse since there was no indication of what desktops and phones were supported in my cursory examination. It always amazes me how often basic information like this is absent from the promotional material for various products.
  - spacehunt 5y ago
    When you click Download you are given the list of supported platforms.
drewg123 5y ago
Wow, I recently rage-switched to lxde after yet another kde upgrade on a rolling-release os (FreeBSD) that left kde unusable. This is making me consider coming back to kde.
- severine 5y ago
  KDE Connect works well in other environments, I use it within Xfce, LXDE should work as well.
- atat7024 5y ago
  KDE Connect does not require you to use KDE as your desktop environment, last I checked.
  - dijksterhuis 5y ago
    Can confirm, have it running on xfce right now.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- ihalip 5y ago
  You can use KDE Connect without the full KDE desktop environment. I'm on Linux Mint Cinnamon and it works just fine.
- cevn 5y ago
  KDE upgrades are the worst. I tried upgrading on Ubuntu 21.04, it failed. Fedora, it failed.
  - jokethrowaway 5y ago
    I used to think so too - then I switched off Ubuntu and never had a KDE upgrade problem with Arch Linux for years
    - 5y ago
pedrovhb 5y ago
I started using KDE Connect via the Gnome extension just a few days ago, and it's been great so far. I have my phone muted all the time because notification sounds annoy me, but I don't mind the desktop notifications. I've been missing a lot less due to this, and it works instantly and seamlessly, and I spent almost no time configuring it all. Just earlier today I had my phone playing music connected to a bluetooth speaker. I was just getting to my computer and out of habit, hit the volume down media keys. I was surprised for a second when it worked, because immediately after hitting the key I remembered the speakers were connected to my phone, not the computer. Then I realized it was KDE Connect just working :)
- ognarb 5y ago
  Also a cool thing is that it will automatically pause your music playing on your computer, when you get a call. And resume it, when you end the call.
  - germ 5y ago
    Also can wake your monitors when you're connected to wifi! Took me a few months before I realized that my displays would sleep themselves if I was disconnected, walked in one day with wifi disabled, enabled it and my monitors popped up
- jeroenhd 5y ago
  I had a moment like that when I received a call. My smart watch sent a pause command to the playback notification, which was KDE connect, connected to my PC's audio player, which was controlling Kodi on my TV, pausing it nearly instantly. A single pause command bridged four devices and it all just worked together. That's the true power of interoperable software standards. Sadly, Google added a privacy constraint to Android, taking away the ability to monitor the clipboard in the background with no way to bypass the restrictions without rooting your phone. Automated clipboard sync was just great, and I'm sad to see it go.
  - yorwba 5y ago
    I too enjoyed clipboard sync and am sad it's gone, but it still works for the desktop → phone direction, and for transferring text in the opposite direction, I select it and "share" it with KDE Connect, which puts the text into a .txt file on the desktop and displays it. (In my case it's using a pager in a terminal window, I guess that's how my file handlers are set up?) It's not as magical as full automation, but still better than sending an email to myself or similar nonsense.
azangru 5y ago
Trying to copy an audiobook from my linux laptop to my android phone at the moment. I don't think I've ever been able to successfully pull this off before (possibly because last time I tried I was trying to copy files directly onto an SD card in my phone); but I've successfully done it now. Finally KDE Connect has become useful to me!
- e3bc54b2 5y ago
  Its fantastic. I basically never connect phone via USB now (except for ADB operations). And the speed is very good, unlike the crappy Bluetooth or fiddly FTP. KDEConnect just works
BiteCode_dev 5y ago
I miss KDE Connect every time I'm on windows. When watching a movie on the laptop, it's so handy to use the remote control to pause/play/change sound or move the timeline. Now some stuff don't work so well: file transfer is flaky sometimes, sending a text from the laptop has a very primitive UI and I never seem to be able to share the clipboard when I want to. But I love to ping my phone when it's lost in the house.
- Zancarius 5y ago
  > I never seem to be able to share the clipboard when I want to. It usually works for me, but the problem I have is that sometimes the devices lose sync with each other if they've been off for any length of time. Opening the KDE Connect settings typically fixes this, but it's not ideal! I absolutely love KDE Connect, though. Being able to copy text from a laptop to a desktop or use my phone to pause music if I happen to leave for a walk and forgot to stop it is great! I haven't used it yet, but they also have presentation controls for your phone including a pointer that uses the phone's instrumentation to move an animated circle across the screen. Love it!
  - krut-patel 5y ago
    > the problem I have is that sometimes the devices lose sync with each other if they've been off for any length of time. Opening the KDE Connect settings typically fixes this, but it's not ideal! A slightly better solution I have found helpful is to pull down Yakuake (or krunner) and run `kdeconnect-cli --refresh`. Beats having to open a QT window, only to be closed off immediately.
    - Zancarius 5y ago
      Awesome. I'm going to try that next time. Thanks much!
- smoldesu 5y ago
  > I miss KDE Connect every time I'm on windows. Poke around in here[1], I'm certain there's a build that works for most modern Windows 10 machines in here somewhere. [1] https://build.kde.org/job/Applications/job/kdeconnect-kde/ https://build.kde.org/job/Applications/job/kdeconnect-kde/
j-james 5y ago
An implementation also exists for GNOME. https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/1319/gsconnect/ https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/1319/gsconnect/
29athrowaway 5y ago
KDE would be more popular today if it wasn't for KDE 4. I think KDE 4 was a big regression from KDE 3 in many ways. After KDE 4 it got better and right now it's good again. Unfortunately, I've already made the switch to other desktop environments. The initial releases of Gnome 3 were also a big regression from Gnome 2. Now Gnome 3 has gotten much better.
- majewsky 5y ago
  KDE 4.0 was a necessary stepping stone to get where KDE/Plasma is today. It would for sure have been nice to have a more feature-complete 4.0 release, but I don't see what the dev team could realistically have done better. There were only that many developers, so the only way would have been to further delay the 4.0 release, thus rendering KDE obsolete in a different way by not shipping anything for even longer. Source: I was with the KDE dev team from about 2008-2012.
  - 29athrowaway 5y ago
    I completely understand the developer point of view. Just talking about the UX. I think the KDE team is very productive and have influenced the desktop experience greatly. Much of that influence is not well understood but can be seen in all the descendants of Konqueror (almost every modern browser now). The way docked windows work in KDevelop 3 was pretty nice. Then I saw it on other IDEs. I am not sure which came first.
- nsonha 5y ago
  coincidentally KDE 4 looks very similar to Windows Vista I actually like it because I was a Windows user back then and I could run KDE 4 on Windows.
  - 29athrowaway 5y ago
    The style resembles Vista but it was the least graphically polished release of KDE in my opinion. KDE 1, 2 and 3 felt polished and detailed in their own ways. KDE 4 felt a bit like developer art.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
CarelessExpert 5y ago
BTW, for those trapped in Windows land, there's an experimental port of the KDE Connect app for Windows that works surprisingly well. My wife was quite puzzled, recently, when a phone call cause video playback on our media PC to pause automatically...
- sokoloff 5y ago
  Answering the call, placing a call, or just having an incoming call ring? I’m maybe in favor of the first, slightly opposed to the second, and would find the last so infuriating that I’d shut it off immediately.
  - CarelessExpert 5y ago
    If memory serves it was when I answered the call.
- tssva 5y ago
  A large amount of the functionality is also available through the "My Phone" application which ships as part of Windows 10.
  - smoldesu 5y ago
    While this is true, "My Phone" doesn't do a great job of staying consistently connected, and it even fails to do a lot of the features that Connect can offer. I still prefer Connect on Windows.
    - tssva 5y ago
      I however have no issues staying connected with "My Phone" and when I used it occasionally there were issues with "KDE Connect". Also the feature I use most is pushing a website to my laptop so I can continue there later. With "My Phone" this works whether I am at home or out and about. Also it works when my laptop is currently not online. "KDE Connect" requires a VPN connection when I am not on the same network and the feature to push to another device doesn't work if that device is offline at the time. I understand that the difference is that one uses a server and one doesn't, and for some people not having Microsoft in the middle is an advantage but for others it is not.
azinman2 5y ago
I assume this is Android specific?
- TheHalfDeafChef 5y ago
  It would appear so. Although KDE Connect can apparently work with MacOS (you'd still need an android phone).
- readflaggedcomm 5y ago
  Some features seem to be, like the virtual input. Others work between desktops, like clipboard sharing, remote keyboard, and run command.
2Gkashmiri 5y ago
Boy. I got on full on KDE plasma since 5.12 I think. KDE connect was promptly installed and I never was able to use a USB cable for data transfer but with KDE connect, I can simply send a file. Its been magical. At least with plasma, the system integration is full and the clipboard feature is a godsend. More power to KDE guys
- MayeulC 5y ago
  Yes, the KDE MTP implementation was recently reworked, but it's still randomly unusable with most android phones in my experience, complaining that it can't access to the device, etc. On the other hand, that other application, while barebones, seems to work 100% of the time: https://github.com/whoozle/android-file-transfer-linux https://github.com/whoozle/android-file-transfer-linux
grawprog 5y ago
I've been using KDE connect since it was first released. It's improved massively over the years and is a solid tool for managing android phones from the desktop. It's one of the first things I install on every new device.
paol 5y ago
I'll take this opportunity to ask a technical question: clipboard integration via KDE Connect was a godsend, but it stopped working with Android 10. I think I read somewhere that Android 10 forbids apps from managing the clipboard. Can anyone confirm this? I hold out hope that clipboard integration might work again...
- e3bc54b2 5y ago
  From what I remember, apps are no longer allowed access to clipboard if they are not open and active, I.e. on the screen.
- krut-patel 5y ago
  They have come up with a workaround for this. Instead of actively monitoring your clipboard in the background, there now exists a "Send Clipboard" button/intent that shares the current clipboard value with the other device(s). Works well enough for me on Android 11.
  - paol 5y ago
    > "Send Clipboard" button Where does that appear? Its not on the button bar that appears over a text selection.
    - yjftsjthsd-h 5y ago
      Share menu
    - higerordermap 5y ago
      For me it appears in notifications as well.
- derimagia 5y ago
  Yeah this is correct. I was able to use a Magisk module to whitelist the KDE Connect app in Android 10 and it worked fine. This is only for rooted devices so it's not really something most people are going to be able to do. https://github.com/Kr328/Riru-ClipboardWhitelist https://github.com/Kr328/Riru-ClipboardWhitelist
ralmeida4381 5y ago
KDE on Linux is by far the best environment for development. Even comparing it against MacOS.
- princevegeta89 5y ago
  It's miles ahead just in the File Browser alone, comparing to the "Finder" in OSX
dochtman 5y ago
Is there documentations of the protocols used for this?
- severine 5y ago
  Start here: https://invent.kde.org/network/kdeconnect-kde#how-does-it-work https://invent.kde.org/network/kdeconnect-kde#how-does-it-wo...
unhammer 5y ago
Is there some flatpak/snap/appimage version that doesn't require installing all the KDE deps?
- O_H_E 5y ago
  check out GSConnect if you are using Gnome. same protool different interface.
MayeulC 5y ago
I wonder if this wouldn't work nicely when combined with UnifiedPush, so that one device (KDE Connect isn't restricted to PC<->Phone) could still communicate with another when not on the same network. I can imagine myself leveraging this on a smartwatch I recently bought to install postmarketOS on.
drewlander 5y ago
works very well. I had it on a Samsung Galaxy S7 and sending messages was wonky due to a known issue with that and a few other Samsung Galaxy phones. However it was easy to setup, use, and absolutely love it, well done! KDE continues to impress. As a side note, I just found out Kmail supports oauth2 with o365!
pierrebai 5y ago
I see nothing on the site, nor in the docs, not even in the how-it-works about security. Is this not a huge security risk in the making? Controlling your phones and your desktops seems risky.
- jeroenhd 5y ago
  All communication is encrypted, accounts are added by verifying each other's fingerprints. File sharing seems SFTP based. You can disable any plugins you find too risky. I haven't found any problem so far. All the servers and clients are open source so you can check the source and roll your own if you really want to.
p4bl0 5y ago
KDE is awesome. KDE Connect is awesome too. It does a lot of useful stuff (remote media control, remote trackpad, remote keyboard, etc). But the most awesome things are the little stuff: the ability to answer any notification from your phone directly from your computer's notification, the ability to just send a webpage to your computer and have it open the web page you started to read on your mobile phone. This kind of stuff quickly becomes a natural part of your workflow, KDE Connect doesn't even get in your way, it's completely transparent.
- p4bl0 5y ago
  Holy sh*t I just clicked on a phone number `tel:` link in my browser on my laptop and the phone number was instantly typed into my phone, one-press away to be called. I wasn't expecting that!
KozmoNau7 5y ago
KDE Connect just works, and gives that seamless integration between phone and computer. Pausing video automatically when a call comes in, easy file transfers, use your phone as a touchpad mouse, it's so slick.
smoldesu 5y ago
KDE Connect is a power user's dream. If you're currently on a Mac wondering how people go without Handoff, synced media controls and desktop messaging, we don't; many of us use KDE connect. In all honesty, there's too many features in this app to list, and I recommend anyone with a spare computer and an Android phone to check it out. It's a legitimate gamechanger for productivity!
- spurgu 5y ago
  I use a Macbook but don't use any of the Apple software and my phone is Android so I would love to have KDE Connect. I tried it a couple of weeks ago but couldn't get it to work. Will try again now! Edit: Build failed Action: compile for libs/dbus:1.13.18-3 FAILED *** Craft all failed: libs/dbus after 32 seconds *** fatal error: package libs/dbus all failed
  - smoldesu 5y ago
    Try grabbing their compiled DMG from the binary factory [1], it'll be a lot easier to work with. [1] https://binary-factory.kde.org/view/MacOS/job/kdeconnect-kde_Release_macos/ https://binary-factory.kde.org/view/MacOS/job/kdeconnect-kde...
    - spurgu 5y ago
      Thanks! Got it installed but nothing happens when I run it. :| Tried grepping for processes with "kde" but get nothing.
BetterDriver 5y ago
Could someone tell me whether it's battery intensive for the mobile phone or the laptop? I have been hesitant to install it lest it use too much battery of my phone for just an occasional use.
- bluGill 5y ago
  When I'm listening to music the constantly changing song drains my phone's battery over the course of the day. (phone in my pocket either way). For every other use I don't notice it, and it is handy to be able to check on what my kids are doing on the computer when I'm away.
- up6w6 5y ago
  Im using it the whole day and it reports less than 0.1% battery usage (from 3000mAh) and 104 Bytes of data usage. Its probably using more than that but its definitely not something to worry about.
pmontra 5y ago
You don't even need a computer. I use the Android app to send files to another phone or tablet with the computer switched off. I can control media playing on a tablet from my phone, ring a device to find it, share browser tabs. On my Ubuntu I'm using gsconnect which implements the same protocol.
metallkopf 5y ago
i've made a headless implementation in python for communicating between my server and my desktop https://github.com/metallkopf/konnect https://github.com/metallkopf/konnect
- O_H_E 5y ago
  Huh, pretty cool. Could definitely come handy.
satya71 5y ago
Almost want to switch to Android for this.
DigitallyFidget 5y ago
I just discovered that they made this for Windows finally. I had been using this for a decade now, and the addition to android was an amazing quality of life improvement for me. Now that it can work on Windows it's even more powerful and useful.
tkot 5y ago
It's unfortunate that KDE Connect doesn't seem to be working on latest Ubuntu LTS (Focal Fossa): https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/kdeconnect/+bug/1905341 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/kdeconnect/+bug/19...
moxvallix 5y ago
KDE Connect also can be used to connect to other computers, which is super useful for quick file transfer. It's just great software!
- tombrossman 5y ago
  It is great but it increments ports each time it connects/reconnects which means you will have quite a few unwanted entries in your known_hosts file. Minor problem, but if you like to keep it organized you should check it from time to time and delete all the obsolete connections.
  - scns 5y ago
    On the desktop or the phone?
ajyotirmay 5y ago
Apart from the usual bells and whistles of KDE Connect, I have my devices connected to each other over awireguard tunnel. This way KDE Connect works even if the devices aren't on the same network. It was the best thing I did for myself!
- rgun 5y ago
  Can you please elaborate as to how it can be done? Will putting all your devices in a VPN suffice?

234 points by Jiejeing 5y ago

What could possibly go wrong....

This is underappreciated. So useful. Just works. Can do almost anything. I think KDE in general needs better marketing. It is by far the best desktop environment available.

Jiejeing 5y ago
I am not a huge fan of the KDE desktop experience, but KDE Connect among others is something that provides an amazing value.
peterrus 5y ago
Works great on Gnome as well, with this extension: https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/1319/gsconnect/ https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/1319/gsconnect/
ChuckNorris89 5y ago
>KDE in general needs better marketing But how would the KDE community do that without spending money?
- azangru 5y ago
  Through blog posts and videos? ;-) Cool things that KDE can do, or how to be productive with KDE.
ognarb 5y ago
About your point about a better marketing, as a KDE developer and member of the small KDE Promo team, I completely agree with you. Unfortunately like most of open sources projects, our budgets and manpower is very small. If someone is interested to help our promo team, feel free to join: https://community.kde.org/Get_Involved#Promotion https://community.kde.org/Get_Involved#Promotion. We always need more help with writing and proofreading announcement texts, maintaining the websites, doing videos, writing tweets/toots, ...
- solarkraft 5y ago
  The fediverse presence is fairly nice!
- Zancarius 5y ago
  I absolutely love what you guys do. One of the unfortunate things I run into on social media is this idiotic perception that KDE is bloated and cumbersome, then when you drill down into the argument, you often find that these same people haven't used it for 10-15 years. I'm not sure how you can fix branding perceptions that are based on fallacious experiences that weren't updated in the last decade, but I think some manner of user evangelism can also help!
  - ghostpepper 5y ago
    If a person used KDE 10 years ago and it was bloated, and I haven't used it since, I don't think it's fair (or helpful for that matter) to use terms like 'idiotic' when trying to convince someone to give the project a second chance.
    - bluGill 5y ago
      KDE has always been the most bloated in the initial install. However when you actually try to do something you discover that whatever the environment they are all about as big, with KDE being the smallest since they trade initial bloat for in use leanness.
    - nmstoker 5y ago
      Their use of the term is not meant personally I'm sure, but for anyone applying insights that are ten years out of date in a fairly rapidly changing field of software like this, they are hardly going to win awards for being smart are they? This happens too much with software - look at various open source filesystems that had reliability issues in the early days (which is pretty reasonable), someone writes a piece that highlights this and years later people are still parroting it as current insight - with the downside being that it can crush a project and thus in time make a self fulfilling legacy.
  - 5y ago
aantix 5y ago
Can I send/receive the same messages I received on my iPhone? Similar to the OSX message app? Agree on the better marketing. It wasn't obvious from the website.
- smoldesu 5y ago
  > Can I send/receive the same messages I received on my iPhone? Nope. Apple doesn't extend their messaging protocols to developers like that. But it does work perfectly fine on Android! There's both a QT5 and GTK interface for it, both of which are pretty fully featured and actively developed, and it syncs with your phones messages over WiFi or Bluetooth.
Blackthorn 5y ago
Indeed, better marketing would be good. I was so burned on the KDE 3->4 transition I haven't been back since, even though that was a very long time ago. And clearly from the article, they're doing some pretty fantastic stuff now! Gotta get in and try it out again!
- ajyotirmay 5y ago
  You missed out on the Plasma5 transition. It surprises me how no one eyed Gnomr for the mess Gnome 3 was. Gnome 40 is a mess as well, trying to reinvent the UX. But KDE's desktop gets criticized for what it was when it tried 3D graphics at a time when Qt wasn't ready.
  - Blackthorn 5y ago
    I don't use gnome, so I have no knowledge there. Just going my experience of going from what I considered the perfect desktop (KDE3) to what I considered a major downgrade. I'm glad KDE is good again!

luke2m 5y ago

Now will someone port this to iOS?

ognarb 5y ago
There is a GSoC project about it :) https://community.kde.org/GSoC/2021/Ideas#Project:_KDE_Connect_for_iOS https://community.kde.org/GSoC/2021/Ideas#Project:_KDE_Conne...
- luke2m 5y ago
  Nice! Hope it gets done.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
dhosek 5y ago
I spent a few minutes on the site trying to see what was supported and saw nothing. I have a passing awareness of KDE so I could assume that the desktop platform was Linux, but the mobile platform was not specified anywhere in my initial searching. I have to admit I didn't dedicate a lot of time to that though, since I have no interest in running desktop Linux.
- luke2m 5y ago
  KDE connect works on macOS too.
  - dhosek 5y ago
    Which actually makes the information lack even worse since there was no indication of what desktops and phones were supported in my cursory examination. It always amazes me how often basic information like this is absent from the promotional material for various products.
- spacehunt 5y ago
  When you click Download you are given the list of supported platforms.

drewg123 5y ago

Wow, I recently rage-switched to lxde after yet another kde upgrade on a rolling-release os (FreeBSD) that left kde unusable. This is making me consider coming back to kde.

severine 5y ago
KDE Connect works well in other environments, I use it within Xfce, LXDE should work as well.
atat7024 5y ago
KDE Connect does not require you to use KDE as your desktop environment, last I checked.
- dijksterhuis 5y ago
  Can confirm, have it running on xfce right now.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
ihalip 5y ago
You can use KDE Connect without the full KDE desktop environment. I'm on Linux Mint Cinnamon and it works just fine.
cevn 5y ago
KDE upgrades are the worst. I tried upgrading on Ubuntu 21.04, it failed. Fedora, it failed.
- jokethrowaway 5y ago
  I used to think so too - then I switched off Ubuntu and never had a KDE upgrade problem with Arch Linux for years
  - 5y ago

pedrovhb 5y ago

I started using KDE Connect via the Gnome extension just a few days ago, and it's been great so far. I have my phone muted all the time because notification sounds annoy me, but I don't mind the desktop notifications. I've been missing a lot less due to this, and it works instantly and seamlessly, and I spent almost no time configuring it all. Just earlier today I had my phone playing music connected to a bluetooth speaker. I was just getting to my computer and out of habit, hit the volume down media keys. I was surprised for a second when it worked, because immediately after hitting the key I remembered the speakers were connected to my phone, not the computer. Then I realized it was KDE Connect just working :)

ognarb 5y ago
Also a cool thing is that it will automatically pause your music playing on your computer, when you get a call. And resume it, when you end the call.
- germ 5y ago
  Also can wake your monitors when you're connected to wifi! Took me a few months before I realized that my displays would sleep themselves if I was disconnected, walked in one day with wifi disabled, enabled it and my monitors popped up
jeroenhd 5y ago
I had a moment like that when I received a call. My smart watch sent a pause command to the playback notification, which was KDE connect, connected to my PC's audio player, which was controlling Kodi on my TV, pausing it nearly instantly. A single pause command bridged four devices and it all just worked together. That's the true power of interoperable software standards. Sadly, Google added a privacy constraint to Android, taking away the ability to monitor the clipboard in the background with no way to bypass the restrictions without rooting your phone. Automated clipboard sync was just great, and I'm sad to see it go.
- yorwba 5y ago
  I too enjoyed clipboard sync and am sad it's gone, but it still works for the desktop → phone direction, and for transferring text in the opposite direction, I select it and "share" it with KDE Connect, which puts the text into a .txt file on the desktop and displays it. (In my case it's using a pager in a terminal window, I guess that's how my file handlers are set up?) It's not as magical as full automation, but still better than sending an email to myself or similar nonsense.

azangru 5y ago

Trying to copy an audiobook from my linux laptop to my android phone at the moment. I don't think I've ever been able to successfully pull this off before (possibly because last time I tried I was trying to copy files directly onto an SD card in my phone); but I've successfully done it now. Finally KDE Connect has become useful to me!

e3bc54b2 5y ago
Its fantastic. I basically never connect phone via USB now (except for ADB operations). And the speed is very good, unlike the crappy Bluetooth or fiddly FTP. KDEConnect just works

BiteCode_dev 5y ago

I miss KDE Connect every time I'm on windows. When watching a movie on the laptop, it's so handy to use the remote control to pause/play/change sound or move the timeline. Now some stuff don't work so well: file transfer is flaky sometimes, sending a text from the laptop has a very primitive UI and I never seem to be able to share the clipboard when I want to. But I love to ping my phone when it's lost in the house.

Zancarius 5y ago
> I never seem to be able to share the clipboard when I want to. It usually works for me, but the problem I have is that sometimes the devices lose sync with each other if they've been off for any length of time. Opening the KDE Connect settings typically fixes this, but it's not ideal! I absolutely love KDE Connect, though. Being able to copy text from a laptop to a desktop or use my phone to pause music if I happen to leave for a walk and forgot to stop it is great! I haven't used it yet, but they also have presentation controls for your phone including a pointer that uses the phone's instrumentation to move an animated circle across the screen. Love it!
- krut-patel 5y ago
  > the problem I have is that sometimes the devices lose sync with each other if they've been off for any length of time. Opening the KDE Connect settings typically fixes this, but it's not ideal! A slightly better solution I have found helpful is to pull down Yakuake (or krunner) and run `kdeconnect-cli --refresh`. Beats having to open a QT window, only to be closed off immediately.
  - Zancarius 5y ago
    Awesome. I'm going to try that next time. Thanks much!
smoldesu 5y ago
> I miss KDE Connect every time I'm on windows. Poke around in here[1], I'm certain there's a build that works for most modern Windows 10 machines in here somewhere. [1] https://build.kde.org/job/Applications/job/kdeconnect-kde/ https://build.kde.org/job/Applications/job/kdeconnect-kde/

j-james 5y ago

An implementation also exists for GNOME. https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/1319/gsconnect/ https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/1319/gsconnect/

29athrowaway 5y ago

KDE would be more popular today if it wasn't for KDE 4. I think KDE 4 was a big regression from KDE 3 in many ways. After KDE 4 it got better and right now it's good again. Unfortunately, I've already made the switch to other desktop environments. The initial releases of Gnome 3 were also a big regression from Gnome 2. Now Gnome 3 has gotten much better.

majewsky 5y ago
KDE 4.0 was a necessary stepping stone to get where KDE/Plasma is today. It would for sure have been nice to have a more feature-complete 4.0 release, but I don't see what the dev team could realistically have done better. There were only that many developers, so the only way would have been to further delay the 4.0 release, thus rendering KDE obsolete in a different way by not shipping anything for even longer. Source: I was with the KDE dev team from about 2008-2012.
- 29athrowaway 5y ago
  I completely understand the developer point of view. Just talking about the UX. I think the KDE team is very productive and have influenced the desktop experience greatly. Much of that influence is not well understood but can be seen in all the descendants of Konqueror (almost every modern browser now). The way docked windows work in KDevelop 3 was pretty nice. Then I saw it on other IDEs. I am not sure which came first.
nsonha 5y ago
coincidentally KDE 4 looks very similar to Windows Vista I actually like it because I was a Windows user back then and I could run KDE 4 on Windows.
- 29athrowaway 5y ago
  The style resembles Vista but it was the least graphically polished release of KDE in my opinion. KDE 1, 2 and 3 felt polished and detailed in their own ways. KDE 4 felt a bit like developer art.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

CarelessExpert 5y ago

BTW, for those trapped in Windows land, there's an experimental port of the KDE Connect app for Windows that works surprisingly well. My wife was quite puzzled, recently, when a phone call cause video playback on our media PC to pause automatically...

sokoloff 5y ago
Answering the call, placing a call, or just having an incoming call ring? I’m maybe in favor of the first, slightly opposed to the second, and would find the last so infuriating that I’d shut it off immediately.
- CarelessExpert 5y ago
  If memory serves it was when I answered the call.
tssva 5y ago
A large amount of the functionality is also available through the "My Phone" application which ships as part of Windows 10.
- smoldesu 5y ago
  While this is true, "My Phone" doesn't do a great job of staying consistently connected, and it even fails to do a lot of the features that Connect can offer. I still prefer Connect on Windows.
  - tssva 5y ago
    I however have no issues staying connected with "My Phone" and when I used it occasionally there were issues with "KDE Connect". Also the feature I use most is pushing a website to my laptop so I can continue there later. With "My Phone" this works whether I am at home or out and about. Also it works when my laptop is currently not online. "KDE Connect" requires a VPN connection when I am not on the same network and the feature to push to another device doesn't work if that device is offline at the time. I understand that the difference is that one uses a server and one doesn't, and for some people not having Microsoft in the middle is an advantage but for others it is not.

azinman2 5y ago

I assume this is Android specific?

TheHalfDeafChef 5y ago
It would appear so. Although KDE Connect can apparently work with MacOS (you'd still need an android phone).
readflaggedcomm 5y ago
Some features seem to be, like the virtual input. Others work between desktops, like clipboard sharing, remote keyboard, and run command.

2Gkashmiri 5y ago

Boy. I got on full on KDE plasma since 5.12 I think. KDE connect was promptly installed and I never was able to use a USB cable for data transfer but with KDE connect, I can simply send a file. Its been magical. At least with plasma, the system integration is full and the clipboard feature is a godsend. More power to KDE guys

MayeulC 5y ago
Yes, the KDE MTP implementation was recently reworked, but it's still randomly unusable with most android phones in my experience, complaining that it can't access to the device, etc. On the other hand, that other application, while barebones, seems to work 100% of the time: https://github.com/whoozle/android-file-transfer-linux https://github.com/whoozle/android-file-transfer-linux

grawprog 5y ago

I've been using KDE connect since it was first released. It's improved massively over the years and is a solid tool for managing android phones from the desktop. It's one of the first things I install on every new device.

paol 5y ago

I'll take this opportunity to ask a technical question: clipboard integration via KDE Connect was a godsend, but it stopped working with Android 10. I think I read somewhere that Android 10 forbids apps from managing the clipboard. Can anyone confirm this? I hold out hope that clipboard integration might work again...

e3bc54b2 5y ago
From what I remember, apps are no longer allowed access to clipboard if they are not open and active, I.e. on the screen.
krut-patel 5y ago
They have come up with a workaround for this. Instead of actively monitoring your clipboard in the background, there now exists a "Send Clipboard" button/intent that shares the current clipboard value with the other device(s). Works well enough for me on Android 11.
- paol 5y ago
  > "Send Clipboard" button Where does that appear? Its not on the button bar that appears over a text selection.
  - yjftsjthsd-h 5y ago
    Share menu
  - higerordermap 5y ago
    For me it appears in notifications as well.
derimagia 5y ago
Yeah this is correct. I was able to use a Magisk module to whitelist the KDE Connect app in Android 10 and it worked fine. This is only for rooted devices so it's not really something most people are going to be able to do. https://github.com/Kr328/Riru-ClipboardWhitelist https://github.com/Kr328/Riru-ClipboardWhitelist

ralmeida4381 5y ago

KDE on Linux is by far the best environment for development. Even comparing it against MacOS.

princevegeta89 5y ago
It's miles ahead just in the File Browser alone, comparing to the "Finder" in OSX

dochtman 5y ago

Is there documentations of the protocols used for this?

severine 5y ago
Start here: https://invent.kde.org/network/kdeconnect-kde#how-does-it-work https://invent.kde.org/network/kdeconnect-kde#how-does-it-wo...

unhammer 5y ago

Is there some flatpak/snap/appimage version that doesn't require installing all the KDE deps?

O_H_E 5y ago
check out GSConnect if you are using Gnome. same protool different interface.

MayeulC 5y ago

I wonder if this wouldn't work nicely when combined with UnifiedPush, so that one device (KDE Connect isn't restricted to PC<->Phone) could still communicate with another when not on the same network. I can imagine myself leveraging this on a smartwatch I recently bought to install postmarketOS on.

drewlander 5y ago

works very well. I had it on a Samsung Galaxy S7 and sending messages was wonky due to a known issue with that and a few other Samsung Galaxy phones. However it was easy to setup, use, and absolutely love it, well done! KDE continues to impress. As a side note, I just found out Kmail supports oauth2 with o365!

pierrebai 5y ago

I see nothing on the site, nor in the docs, not even in the how-it-works about security. Is this not a huge security risk in the making? Controlling your phones and your desktops seems risky.

jeroenhd 5y ago
All communication is encrypted, accounts are added by verifying each other's fingerprints. File sharing seems SFTP based. You can disable any plugins you find too risky. I haven't found any problem so far. All the servers and clients are open source so you can check the source and roll your own if you really want to.

p4bl0 5y ago

KDE is awesome. KDE Connect is awesome too. It does a lot of useful stuff (remote media control, remote trackpad, remote keyboard, etc). But the most awesome things are the little stuff: the ability to answer any notification from your phone directly from your computer's notification, the ability to just send a webpage to your computer and have it open the web page you started to read on your mobile phone. This kind of stuff quickly becomes a natural part of your workflow, KDE Connect doesn't even get in your way, it's completely transparent.

p4bl0 5y ago
Holy sh*t I just clicked on a phone number `tel:` link in my browser on my laptop and the phone number was instantly typed into my phone, one-press away to be called. I wasn't expecting that!

KozmoNau7 5y ago

KDE Connect just works, and gives that seamless integration between phone and computer. Pausing video automatically when a call comes in, easy file transfers, use your phone as a touchpad mouse, it's so slick.

smoldesu 5y ago

KDE Connect is a power user's dream. If you're currently on a Mac wondering how people go without Handoff, synced media controls and desktop messaging, we don't; many of us use KDE connect. In all honesty, there's too many features in this app to list, and I recommend anyone with a spare computer and an Android phone to check it out. It's a legitimate gamechanger for productivity!

spurgu 5y ago
I use a Macbook but don't use any of the Apple software and my phone is Android so I would love to have KDE Connect. I tried it a couple of weeks ago but couldn't get it to work. Will try again now! Edit: Build failed Action: compile for libs/dbus:1.13.18-3 FAILED *** Craft all failed: libs/dbus after 32 seconds *** fatal error: package libs/dbus all failed
- smoldesu 5y ago
  Try grabbing their compiled DMG from the binary factory [1], it'll be a lot easier to work with. [1] https://binary-factory.kde.org/view/MacOS/job/kdeconnect-kde_Release_macos/ https://binary-factory.kde.org/view/MacOS/job/kdeconnect-kde...
  - spurgu 5y ago
    Thanks! Got it installed but nothing happens when I run it. :| Tried grepping for processes with "kde" but get nothing.

BetterDriver 5y ago

Could someone tell me whether it's battery intensive for the mobile phone or the laptop? I have been hesitant to install it lest it use too much battery of my phone for just an occasional use.

bluGill 5y ago
When I'm listening to music the constantly changing song drains my phone's battery over the course of the day. (phone in my pocket either way). For every other use I don't notice it, and it is handy to be able to check on what my kids are doing on the computer when I'm away.
up6w6 5y ago
Im using it the whole day and it reports less than 0.1% battery usage (from 3000mAh) and 104 Bytes of data usage. Its probably using more than that but its definitely not something to worry about.

pmontra 5y ago

You don't even need a computer. I use the Android app to send files to another phone or tablet with the computer switched off. I can control media playing on a tablet from my phone, ring a device to find it, share browser tabs. On my Ubuntu I'm using gsconnect which implements the same protocol.

metallkopf 5y ago

i've made a headless implementation in python for communicating between my server and my desktop https://github.com/metallkopf/konnect https://github.com/metallkopf/konnect

O_H_E 5y ago
Huh, pretty cool. Could definitely come handy.

satya71 5y ago

Almost want to switch to Android for this.

DigitallyFidget 5y ago

I just discovered that they made this for Windows finally. I had been using this for a decade now, and the addition to android was an amazing quality of life improvement for me. Now that it can work on Windows it's even more powerful and useful.

tkot 5y ago

It's unfortunate that KDE Connect doesn't seem to be working on latest Ubuntu LTS (Focal Fossa): https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/kdeconnect/+bug/1905341 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/kdeconnect/+bug/19...

moxvallix 5y ago

KDE Connect also can be used to connect to other computers, which is super useful for quick file transfer. It's just great software!

tombrossman 5y ago
It is great but it increments ports each time it connects/reconnects which means you will have quite a few unwanted entries in your known_hosts file. Minor problem, but if you like to keep it organized you should check it from time to time and delete all the obsolete connections.
- scns 5y ago
  On the desktop or the phone?

ajyotirmay 5y ago

Apart from the usual bells and whistles of KDE Connect, I have my devices connected to each other over awireguard tunnel. This way KDE Connect works even if the devices aren't on the same network. It was the best thing I did for myself!

rgun 5y ago
Can you please elaborate as to how it can be done? Will putting all your devices in a VPN suffice?