1y ago

KDE Connect is the best! Also why isn't the app called KDE Konnekt 🤣

meme stolen

148 comments

Better to avoid 3 k's where possible.
- The KDE Konnect Kult: Where acronyms shouldn't be used.
- ☠️ bruh

The first time it paused my YouTube video inside Firefox when a call came in on my phone, it blew my mind. And then when the call ended, it just casually resumed the video. I love it. That, the clipboard syncing and easy sharing of files between devices make it absolutely awesome to have.
- Especially the file sharing for me. I was previously using USB cable, but during large transfers it tends to just randomly disconnect (thanks MTP). Over WiFi I get faster transfer speeds and it doesn't keep disconnecting.
  Although yes, theoretically I could move .tar archive or individual files over WiFi using netcat and Termux, but that's not the most elegant solution. ~~Also for some reason netcat is somewhat broken on Manjaro.~~ ~~Ok, the issue isn't with nc.~~ Ok (2) it is netcat. I just added a 2nd layer of issues that made me think it's not.
  Edit 3: Ok. MAYBE netcat. I can see incoming connection in Wireshark and it sends back TCP RST. Edit 4: Tried with UDP, I can see the received text in Wireshark, netcat drank methanol.
  
  I've always used python3 -m http.server to get files from PC->phone.
  For phone -> PC I use a library called droopy.py
  
  I use simplex on my phone and simplex CLI on my computer. I just message back and forth. It's already giving me any notifications from my servers, so it's already there anyway.
- I'm not really familiar with KDE connect (and new to Linux in general, but can't see myself ever going back to Windows), could you elaborate on the first part? How does KDE Connect help you watch firefox videos on your phone? Thanks!
  
  Somehow, KDE Connect treats a media stream happening on a connected device the same as if it's playing on your local device. If you're playing a video on your laptop in Firefox it will add one of those "music player" things in your phone's notification shade, allowing you to control the video from your phone.
  Android automagically pauses everything it deems to be "media playback" until the end of your call, thus also pausing that Firefox video on your laptop.
- Pretty much like "continuity" between iPhones and Mac, neat.
- Wow it can do that. I did not know. That is such a handy feature.
  
  Yeah, kde connect can control media players on your desktop and automatically pause them when a call comes in. To make it work with Firefox I do now realise it might be limited to kde desktops only though. But if you have that, all you need is to install the plasma integration extension for Firefox (which does a couple of cool things) and then kde connect can see Firefox's media as well.

F-Droid is the more valuable app store anyway. I always check there before Google Play.
- Forged google play, use the aurora store instead
- You guys are checking Google Play?
- Check Neo Store. It is an alternative front end to F-droid and has been way less buggy for me. Though to be fair just yesterday it ate up 20% of my battery life due to not being able to sync a repo (I think), but that hasn't happened before.
  
  I use Droid-ify myself. It looks like Neo Store is a fork of it. Although neither has been updated for a number of months, Droid-ify's latest version is most recent.

Happy to stumble across this meme. I didn't know KDE Connect was a thing
- Well as one of today's lucky 10,000, let me tell you it's not dependent on the KDE/Android combo. There are versions for Windows, macOS, and iOS (although some functionality is missing).
  
  Upvote for relevant xkcd
  
  Also, gconnect is a Gnome frontend for the same software.
- Same! I've already installed to my phone and will play with it tomorrow.
- You will like it. Try it out.

Fdroid: am I a joke to you?
- F'real
  
  *F-real

It's one of the reasons my next phone will be Android (with a non-spying custom ROM) instead of an iPhone. Although KDE Connect is already surprisingly powerful on the latter given the limitations of the platform.
- The sheer amount of utility Connect has on iOS is insane. It’s starting to compete with handoff and iCloud sharing with how many features they’re recreating.
- You decide on graphene or calyx?
  I prefer graphene personally but not gonna shill. I've dailied both but they are both great. Calyx has a bigger emphasis on free software while graphene has a bigger emphasis on privacy, but you can still achieve most FOSS calyx software on graphene as well.

And plenty of banking apps consider it as a security threat. 😅
- "It's so good that other apps are threatened merely by its presence"
  
  Android auto copies numbers in SMS text messages to the clipboard, so any apps capable of monitoring the clipboard are suspect for one time security pin harversting.
  Happens quite a lot in my country (Malaysia). People, especially the older ones, install apps form unknown source because their WhatsApp/WeChat friends shared them, then their online banking access got compromised, savings account emptied out, and there's nothing the banks can do because on their record, its the account holder doing the transfer.
  Some banks now moved away from SMS and use dedicated app for this purpose now.
- Hmm. I did not know that. Why?

KDE Connect is awesome. I've been using it since it first came out (I think it was a GSoC project) with a variety of phones, and am 100% happy with it.
BTW, about the naming, KDE stopped the K thing around KDE 4, with apps such as Cantor.
- About damn time.
  Trying to find your way around an unfamiliar system where everything started with K was enough to put me off desktop Linux.
  
  Funnily enough it feely pretty natural for someone speaking german (and some other languages). E.g. Konsole is the german word for console etc. Other words like Konqueror do look like a strange mix.

KDE Connect is so good that there is a user-maintained version that works in GNOME as well.
- Gsconnect!
- Ah, googling now!
  
  It's a Gnome shell extension if that helps.

Oh hehe, I had seen KDE connect here and there but never really tried it myself, how are you using it?? What good things does it bring to your lives? :)
- It makes sharing files between your PC and phone super easy. And if you set it up right, you can even browse your entire phone's filesystem from your PC as well. Great if you take a lot of photos or download a lot of memes on your phone and want to quickly offload them to your computer. It also lets you play and pause media from your phone, so if you're playing music or watching a movie on your PC and need to pause while AFK, then it comes in pretty handy. Not only that, but it also has a presentation remote and can turn your phone's touchscreen into a trackpad and keyboard; great for HTPCs.
  Those are just the features I use, it has way more than that. imho I think it might have too many features lmao
  EDIT: Also, how could I forget about the feature that I mainly use KDEC for, the battery indicator plugin. It lets you monitor your phone's battery from your computer.
  
  Sounds like phone link by Microsoft. Pretty neat, there should be a disclosure here or edit. You can't browse all of Android file system unless you root the device Google has locked down some file paths due to exploitation by the end user and attackers.
- I use it to share files between devices. I can also share urls between devices. Clipboard history is automatically synced between devices.
  I can also use it find my phone if I misplace it somewhere.
  It is also possible to run custom commands. You can shut down or restart your pc from your phone. My favourite is the screenshot command, after the screenshot is captured, it is automatically transferred to my phone. A really handy feature.
  There is more. You can also play pause and control the volume of a video playing on your phone or on your laptop from the connect app. Your device can even be used as a touchpad.
  
  Could it be used to transfer files from linux to an Android TV box?

I have a cheap "remote" for my PC, so I rarely use it for media or couch watching, BUT
Take ~50 photos
Get home
Two or three taps
Now they're all on my PC.
- I use syncthing for that, don't even need any taps after it's set up. Did I mention I love syncthing? Because I love syncthing.
  
  Could you clap your hands to confirm you really love it?
  
  How's the battery drain on it? I used to use it, but the battery drain was atrociuous af. I moved onto syncthing fork which made it considerably better but it was still so high that I just ditched the thing entirely. Mind checking now much % it drains in the background?
- I use immich on my server :) KDE connect is amazing tho

I live KDE connect, especially the filesystem share (it uses sshfs in the background).
And yes, it should have been called KDE Konnect 🤣
- Kape, the K pocket environment

Google Play
Is that like Aurora Store for google cucks?
- I had no idea what that was, but I just installed it off F-Droid and it looks sick
  This is why I like Lemmy. You scroll through it and suddenly learn about neat free software you've never heard of, unlike Reddit where you would scroll through it and learn a new slur for an ethnic group you've never heard of.

I have used KDE Connect a couple of times (when I used Kubuntu), and always uninstall it because it provides nothing of value to me. I rather just reach for my phone that's already on my desk.
- That's your first mistake, never do something the easy way when you could do it in a way that makes you feel like a cyber ninja
- Pause/play/skip for music from the other room is nice, auto mute, phone notifications on desktop, etc... Even with my phone next to me, some features are still useful.

Love that app

It's so good! Installed it once to try it and it never left my laptop. When they added the gyro mouse sensor it got even better - controlling my kodi mediacenter with it is just amazing like that. Also unlocking the screensaver without typing my password, fast even using over VPN etc...its just perfect.

KDE connect worked nicely on my iphone for awhile but now I can't get it to work. But yeah it is pretty cool.
- Lol.
  So often I see this.
  “This thing on Linux was so rad until it stopped being rad, rather suddenly. I loved it while it worked though.”
  Believe it or not, my daily driver is SteamOS these days and I haven’t had any problems.
  I first started using Linux with Redhat 5.2 in like 99/00. So I’ve pretty much got it down these days. I’m not saying I’m an expert, I’m definitely not, but I don’t get beat any more.
  
  Wow, that's awesome. You're so cool bro.

I wonder when there will be a Windows client for KDE Connect. I really miss it at work.
- I am sorry, but it's been in Microsoft store for a while now. There's also offline installer on the download page.
  Edit: Based on archive.org, at least since April 2020.
  
  I suggest the offline installer over the Microsoft Store version.
  The option to share files via right click > "Send to" seen below doesn't appear for me using the Microsoft Store version.
- I uh I have good news
- I wonder when there will be a Windows client for KDE Connect.
  Wonder no more.
- There is already one. I remember using it. But I think the linux one works better than the windows because of better integration.

Tbh it's kind of a terrible app. I can never keep it connected and the UX is just painful. The most useful feature is transferring files, but when uploading to my PC the dialog box always closes itself before I can see where the file went.
- I can never keep it connected
  Disable battery optimization for KDE Connect on Android. (If you're on Samsung you might be screwed. They did weird stuff with optimizations.)
  Edit: Related: https://dontkillmyapp.com/
  
  Samsung user here. I'm working with a Galaxy S22 Ultra, Galaxy Tab S7+ and a Dell XPS 9310 running Fedora. Set KDE Connect to never sleeping on the Samsung devices and it will work flawlessly. Transferring files, copy paste between devices, notifications etc just work for me. The only platform where I felt KDE Connect didn't work smoothly was my Windows gaming machine. I gave in and just used the Microsoft phone connect app for that machine but everything else it's KDE all the way.
  
  Holy god. Thank you.
  
  No like when I go to reconnect it when I want to transfer a file I need to go through the pairing process again because it somehow loses the pairing even though both devices still show each other as trusted.
  
  It stays open on my phone with battery optimizations disabled, but the Windows app needs to be manually started from the tray icon after waking from sleep/hibernate for it to work. I've even tried setting up a scheduled task to run the app when my PC wakes but it just doesn't work unless I open it from the tray or restart the whole app.
- it goes to your download folder
  
  Yeah thanks tips. I figured that out a while ago after going through way more trouble that I should have had to. Next time I need to use it there's a good chance I'll forget again and start the whole process all over because some dev thought an auto closing dialog that stays up for a fraction of a second was a good idea.
- closes itself before I can see where the file went
  Downloads folder
  
  Thanks, you're the second person to reply with the same useless advice.
- You can try transferring files through MEGA. Its parallel synchronization is really fast.
  
  Or try to come at the problem from the other angle and use something like tailscale to get around any potential networking issues.
  Then use any peer-to-peer transfer app or tailscale's own file transfer tool and tailscale will ensure the fastest route between the devices no matter where they are physically located.
  
  I’m Kim Dotcom and I approve of this message.
  For real though, I use mega for everything. I fucking love it.

everytime i missplace my phone this saves me so much time
- Same here.

Neat app! Definitely will try it when I get home.
- It's actually fine, those permissions are all for actual features, and you only need to grant if you want to use the features that require them.
  
  Yes, I'm just pointing out there is no tracking. Permissions are fine depending on context of what the app actually does

I never could get it to work in KDE Neon.
- You're missing out. The trackpad function is amazing, not having to get up from bed when your desk is too far is a god send. I know I could buy a wireless mouse, but why if you can just use your phone?
  
  This, it works great. Also it's the future we deserve. Screw rational feature design for the common denominator, I want my phone to control my computer in every way possible and vice versa.
- you need to be on the same network which also means excluding VPN on local network (or connect both PC and phone on the same VPN network)

🤯

KDE connect is so good it works better than the windows built-in integration to android.

Does it work with awesome wm?
- Yes it should
- What is awesome wm?
  
  Awesome is a tiling windows mánager.

Because it wasn't made by King K. Rool

I cannot say I know if this is a function on the Linux version, but one tiny gripe I have with Connect is that I can send my clipboard from my phone to my windows desktop but not vise versa.
I can definitely say, though, that the pretty much only other function I use (file sending) is pretty good when I want/need to send smaller things to my desktop and vice versa.
- I've definitely had it work in the past!
  
  If you're talking about the clipboard feature working on the desktop version, I'll have to do dive into connect.

While I love the idea of KDE Connect, in practice the SMS feature doesn't work reliably at all.
- Don't forget you can't send pictures from your PC because... reasons.
  
  Ha, I tried to use it the other day the button just does nothing. Everyone keeps telling me to change the battery settings on my phone (which I did) but I think the app is just fundamentally broken. It tries to do too many things and is bad at all of them.
- Idk... I struggle through it for the ease of typing. I think the issue is more on my phone's side than KDE connect itslef

I've had to use CX File Explorer here and there for various things. KDE is just a better version of that then?
CX was pretty lightweight last I used it.
- KDE Connect is an android app that allows you to control some parts of your PC from your phone if you have a corresponding app installed on your computer, not a file manager.
  
  And vice versa - you can run commands on your computer from your phone. Handy when you're in bed but remember that you forgot to turn the computer off.

I feel like they missed a perfect opportunity, though it may just be the most 2000s thing ever.

i was struggling to install the thing on linux. although i am still noob on ubuntu :/
- What problem are you having?
  
  i am not on my laptop right now, but i am running ubuntu on a vm: and didn't know how to run kde after installing from ubuntu software store, and apparently it require usb debugging on android, although i would prefer wireless debugging: i even struggled to install the teamviewer .deb file, but figured it out afterall and had to figure how to run teamviewer, then after launch, i had to activate remote desktop, i had to install this rdp thing, and yet couldn't reach the teamviewer server. again, all this on the VM ( Vmware on windows 7) i am used to windows gui, so i took alot of things for granted, and the smallest task requires me to look up a guide for it, but kinda worth it, since i can't install win 11 since my laptop is too old and couldnt install win 10 since it required a different partition system, and after that it didn't install, so i am familiarizing myself with linux on vm for now
  
  I like how you have mentioned your instance name in username to distinguish between your alt accounts

It is very nice but the officle app depents a lot on qt what is really anoing. It would be really nice if I could use a gtk version of it on hyprland

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