It works on all platforms, I work on mobile apps so I have quite a few Androids and iPhones, as well as a linux laptop and a Mac mini. It works seamlessly between all of those.
That would be one of KDE Connects' main functions, yes. It makes sharing any kind of file (photos, videos, whatever) easy.
You can also share the content of your clipboard from your desktop to your phone and vice versa. So you would copy, say, a web address on your desktop, and you would be able to paste it into your web browser on your phone immediately.
The only unique (I think?) thing about phone link is that it enables you to use your Android phone camera as a webcam, which can be handy if you don't have a quality webcam. I think its only in the beta version though.
I'm not sure if this is a Pixel feature or if its available across all of Android, but there is an option when you connect over USB to connect your phone as a webcam - but that is of course tethered instead of being wireless.
when it works. but it's so incredibly buggy, especially the desktop apps, and double especially the sms desktop app. holy shite is it terrible, and trying to get support is like trying to report a problem to google
I've explicitly told people not to send me text messages. The protocols are old and shit compared to other instant messengers. I'm on Google chat, telegram, signal, discord, slack, teams.... Find another app to talk to me with. I generally don't care which one, but I actively refuse to sign up for or into any Facebook/meta/Zuckerberg properties. If you use something I don't that isn't owned by the zuck, I'll probably sign up so we can keep touch, but for the love of God, not SMS.
Look, SMS was great when phones didn't have internet on them. It was a quick and easy way to send updates and chat while away from your cable/DSL/dialup (whatever you had at the time). Now that data is the primary use for a mobile phone plan, just use a more robust IM app.
I also have about six or seven phone numbers, which I give out to different groups of people for different reasons, plus a phone number on my mobile which nearly nobody knows. All my other lines (all VoIP lines) ring my cellphone number. Texting from my VoIP line is not fun, but it does work. Multimedia messages generally get lost and RCS is just encouraging the use of something that should have been killed off.
I'm partial to Telegram and signal since they mainly operate by phone numbers, but I can make "voice" and video calls over data rather than having to use my cellphone directly; which allows me to call from my computer, laptop, phone, tablet.... Literally any device that can run the program. So if my phone is lost/damaged/stolen/whatever (unavailable for any reason), I can still send messages to you and call if needed.
If everything is tied to your cellphone number, and that number becomes unavailable for any reason, well... Get fucked I guess. Your SIM stops working, your phone dies/breaks/gets stolen, your provider decides to fuck your account up or charge you a fortune for no good reason and cuts you off, your provider has a major malfunction and stops servicing clients in your area.... Literally anything goes wrong with the one system you use and all your SMS bullshit goes away. Stop. Using. SMS.
KDE Connect and Phone Link only have partial feature overlap. I prefer KDE Connect but to claim that either is a proper alternative for the other is wrong, unless I missed that KDE Connect supports casting the phone's screen to PCs and launching phone apps from there.
There is scrcpy for that and you can launch arbitrary commands from KDE Connect too.
I'm fully aware of that but the scrcpy feature set is not integrated into KDE Conenct, therefore the features overlap to a degree but aren't the same. Phone Link allows to launch apps from Windows, KDE Connect doesn't offer the same. That's no diss or anything, just stating facts.
@kde #kdeconnect is really awesome. The only negative point is that it won't allow you to send multiple files simultaneously. We have to send each file separately. If possible, please provide it soon. @[email protected]
KDE Connect mounts your phone as a network folder in Dolphin. You could copy multiple files and paste them into a folder in your phone through Dolpin as a workaround.
@Norodix@[email protected]@[email protected] it really is awesome! I use it daily. The last time was during a presentation at school , using my phone as a kind of remote for presentations is awesome
KDE connect es ya un buque insignia de la conectividad para los amantes del #softwarelibre y si no es por KDE ni sabríamos que Gates ha sacado una nueva basura al mercado.
Apart from screen mirroring and sms that everyone has mentioned the proprietary alternative undeniably has more features.
I don't know whether it is phone link or link to windows but one of them has a feature where your phone can be used as a webcam over WiFi. As someone who set up ip webcam on my phone and used obs virtual camera through most of the pandemic's online classes it's quite useful and I'd like to see features like that just work and are not relying on mjpeg and proprietary software on the phone end.
Their auto hotspot feature i haven't gotten to work and i think is useless but I'm thankful that i don't have to turn off kde connect when using samsung dex.
@Rustmilian
That says works on Linux, Windows and Mac. I'm after android to android. Screen casting from phone to tablet essentially. Am I missing some fine print?
It requires you sign in to a Microsoft Account for it to TRY TO work
ftfy, i wanted to give it a shot one time and it literally didnt work, at all. all of Microsofts cross device features are a hot mess, like how you are supposed to be able to share the clipboard between logged in windows PCs, never could get that working either.
@[email protected]@[email protected]
Wasn't MS "Your phone" available for 5+ years? I mean, I know KDE connect is since 10+ years, but how is this news? Change of naming?
Here's the thing: firstly, There are people who don't know things you do. if you already knew about this, this post is not for you. It's for the people who were not aware of the dangers of using Microsoft's alternative.
Secondly: KDE is not a news agency. Their main mission is to inform, sometimes of stuff that is old, but persevering in time, and often their posts will not cover the headlines of the day. But that doesn't matter, because they are not a news agency.