
KDE Connect 1.10 released - codewiz
https://nicolasfella.wordpress.com/2018/11/04/kde-connect-new-stuff-0x3/
======
Jedd
This is an astonishingly useful tool -- I've been using it for years, and I'm
always impressed that it's well maintained and getting new features.

From the way my music player (Clementine on KDE) pauses for a call, incoming
or outgoing - the media controller from the phone, sms pop-ups on the
computer, the file browser and two-way sharing, clipboard mirroring, and a
nifty 'find my phone' feature (your computer triggers a phone ring).

There's a few features I've not used but are pretty cool to show off to 'other
OS users' \-- use the phone as a trackpad, triggering 'run commands', etc.

~~~
arendtio
Yes, that pause on call feature is pretty cool. If you have the plasma-
integration for your browser [1] installed it can even pause your Amazon Prime
Video (or Youtube, ...). Assuming you are watching a video on the Amazon
website and your phone rings, the video pauses automatically. As soon as the
call is over, the video resumes automatically :D

Sadly Spotify does something to not let the browser detect how to control the
player :-/ (it works on many websites, just not on spotify.com)

[1]: Firefox: [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/plasma-
integr...](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/plasma-integration/)

[1]: Chromium: [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/plasma-
integration...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/plasma-
integration/cimiefiiaegbelhefglklhhakcgmhkai)

~~~
oelmekki
Regarding Spotify : I use its desktop client (an electron-like app, but using
their own implementation of a browser, if I got this right), and it does
properly work with Connect, as it implements the standard media player
controls on desktop.

I have an android wear, this allows me to play/pause, next/previous track
volume up/down spotify running on my desktop from my wrist, this is super cool
(although to be fair, you can also do that with the spotify app on mobile,
used to control spotify on desktop).

[https://www.spotify.com/fr/download/linux/](https://www.spotify.com/fr/download/linux/)

~~~
Vinnl
Unfortunately you can't install tracking protection for their desktop app, so
you'll have to mess with a Pi-Hole or modifying your hosts file or
something...

------
arendtio
IMHO, KDE Connect is currently one of the best parts of KDE (together with
Dolphin and the Nextcloud integration). I use it for a few years now and while
my there are only a few use-cases I use regularly, I am always delighted to
have it when something unexpected happens.

For example, my phone has its own place on my desk and there are just a few
places where I put it when it isn't there. A few weeks ago it wasn't on the
desk and not in the other places where I searched for it. Calling it from
another phone didn't help because it was late in the night and my phone
switches to silent mode for the night automatically. But KDE Connect was the
hero of the day, as the 'ping' feature works even if the phone is in silent
mode :-)

Looking forward to more awesome KDE Connect versions.

~~~
sametmax
The best thing about kde connect is that it's an open protocol so i has been
implemented in other desktops (eg: gnome made gconnect and it works with
kdeconnect android)

------
ailox
If anybody here is using gnome instead of KDE, there is "GSConnect" that
allows you to use your current desktop environment with KDEConnect on your
android mobile phone.

[https://github.com/andyholmes/gnome-shell-extension-
gsconnec...](https://github.com/andyholmes/gnome-shell-extension-
gsconnect/wiki)

~~~
kasbah
In a similar vein, I am not on Gnome or KDE but have been using the basic
kdeconnect functionality, such as sharing clipboard and transferring files,
through kdeconnect-cli quite happily. It comes with the standard kdeconnect
installation I believe.

[http://manpages.org/kdeconnect-cli](http://manpages.org/kdeconnect-cli)

~~~
unhammer
still, on my xubuntu system

    
    
        sudo apt install kdeconnect --no-install-recommends
    

wants to install 101 packages :(

~~~
oAlbe
That's the joy of Qt for you.

It shouldn't be so bad though, the whole set of packages is probably a couple
hundred of MB, IIRC.

------
yoodenvranx
KDE Connect is by far the most useful tool I have discovered in the last few
years. If you use Linux and Android you should give it a try!

My personal highlights:

\- shared clipboard (share urls between devices, write long text on PC and
then copy it into a messenger, ...)

\- very easily share files (and whole folders) between devices

\- music on PC stops when someone is calling

------
tyfon
I've been using this app for several months and it's great. I can see on my
desktop when I get messages and reply or see calls and I can control youtube
in firefox from my phone and a lot of things in between via the Plasma
integration ad-on for firefox.

It's all very seamless and it "just works"!

------
thresh
KDE Connect is just one of the greatest tools ever. What I really did not
expect is that it worked out of the box without any shenanigans to set up.
Great job!

------
emilsedgh
I miss my Android phone because of KDE Connect. I wish it was available on
iOS.

~~~
jamesgeck0
It seems to provide a lot of the functionality of macOS Continuity[1], and
then some. It's a shame we can't hook into that stuff on iOS, since it's
already capable of doing a lot of this.

1\.
[https://www.apple.com/macos/continuity/](https://www.apple.com/macos/continuity/)

~~~
BonesJustice
The Apple "experience" includes lots of little niceties that only work with
Apple software running on Apple hardware (or, for those who live dangerously,
a "Hackintosh").

The touchpad on my 2013 MacBook Pro doesn't click properly anymore, and I
don't much care for the newer models, so I ended up buying a ThinkPad X1
Extreme (running Linux). Unfortunately, it's meant giving up lots of little
things like iMessage integration, AirDrop, Continuity, synchronization with
iCloud, etc.

Yes, several of these features have alternatives that _do_ work nicely on
Linux, but the experience usually isn't as seamless, especially on the iOS
side. And while most of the bits above could probably be reverse engineered, I
can totally understand why open source developers (many of them volunteers)
might not be enthusiastic about spending their time improving compatibility
with a closed platform that won't reciprocate.

------
ben_utzer
what is kde connect?
[https://community.kde.org/KDEConnect#What_is_KDE_Connect.3F](https://community.kde.org/KDEConnect#What_is_KDE_Connect.3F)

------
oelmekki
Excited to see Connect being actively developed. It's already incredibly
useful for me, but I can see it reaching a whole other scale when librem5
phones will be out.

Something I wonder more and more often, lately, is if Connect should not be
responsible to manage notifications.

I've seen that a rewrite of the notification system is on the table [1] to be
on par with android's one, and indeed, I would love to have grouping and
persistence in my notifications (I currently put the notification widget on my
desktop ; it's good enough, but I need to click it to see notifications
history and it quickly gets floody, without grouping).

The reason I would love to see it being part of Connect is to make it easy to
handle shared notifications between several Plasma installs (currently, I
spend a long time tweaking the send and receive notifications plugins in
Connect, this works great with two devices, but starts getting ugly with
three). I can see this being a killing feature, on Plasma mobile.

I guess users who don't use Connect wouldn't love that much to have a
dependency on it for their notification system, though. But since the
discussed rewrite seems mobile focus (IIUC), both systems could co-exist : the
classic desktop style notification system currently implemented, and the
mobile friendly one in Connect, with an option in system settings to select
which one we want to use.

[1]
[https://community.kde.org/Plasma/Notifications#Crazy_Ideas](https://community.kde.org/Plasma/Notifications#Crazy_Ideas)

------
toyg
I’m tempted to get another computer just to give KDE another chance. VMs never
really do it justice.

Are there any recommended hardware manufacturers that are known to work best
with it? Most of the typical Linux-centric sellers seem to ship Ubuntu or some
other hacked Gnome version, and I’d like to reduce my install effort to the
very minimum.

~~~
swebs
Macbooks are always a sure thing. They don't have perfect support out of the
box, there's always some annoyance, but their popularity and uniformity means
that there's always a workaround available on the Arch Wiki. You could say the
"community support" is top notch.

~~~
saghm
Is this still true for the newer (i.e. "touchbar") models? From what I've
heard, it's very hard to get Linux working well on those, and that even things
like the wifi card aren't supported yet

------
wink
Meh, first time I heard about this and of course I wanted to try it. But (as I
could have imagined) it says it will only discover other devices on the same
local network - but my mobile is in my work's guest network, whereas my laptop
is in the internal network. So yeah, this won't fly unless I can think of some
VPN trickery :(

------
jesperht
Does anyone have a quick and easy way of getting this running on OSX, or can
suggest an alternative?

Currently trying to get this to work via Craft
([https://community.kde.org/Craft](https://community.kde.org/Craft)) and
hoping for the best meanwhile

~~~
bruwozniak
Currently I'm using Soduto [https://soduto.com/](https://soduto.com/) and it's
working ok, although only basic functionality is covered.

------
ndnxhs
I forgot about this tool ages ago and recently I was wishing I did something
that this does perfect.

------
curiousgal
Anyone got this working on Arch with i3?

~~~
0xb100db1ade
I have gotten it to work on NixOS with it. I've read that it also works with
Arch.

Make sure kdeconnectd is running, that your appindicator tray bar is working,
and that your devices are on the same network

------
Aissen
I know this is a personal blog, but this is a good time as any to remember a
few points when doing a release announcement:

\- describe the project

\- link to it

See: [https://lwn.net/Articles/397441/](https://lwn.net/Articles/397441/) for
more guidelines.

Here's a link to KDE Connect's description:

[https://community.kde.org/KDEConnect#What_is_KDE_Connect.3F](https://community.kde.org/KDEConnect#What_is_KDE_Connect.3F)

And Play Store listing:
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.kde.kdecon...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.kde.kdeconnect_tp&hl=en)

------
oliloz
I know my message won't be well received here but I wish KDE had a leadership
with a pair of balls that could say to developers "stop losing your time on
these side projects and polish the core desktop and libraries". There are so
many pet projects in KDE while the desktop rots in its instability and lack of
polish...

~~~
distances
You seem to be having some grave misconceptions about

1\. How open source projects work, 2\. How polished and stable KDE already is,
and 3\. How useful piece of software KDE Connect is.

~~~
oliloz
1) Of course you can't force contributors to do anything but there are ways:
tell them repeatedly there are bugs that need fixing, refuse to give them
infrastructure to host their pet projects and make it clear they are not
official and can't bear the KDE trademark, etc.

2) Don't make me laugh.

3) I don't even own an Android so I could never know. And that's not the
point.

I know this is just some ranting and nothing will change. KDE went down a hole
a long time ago when they lost their funding. But I'm sad to see the things
that are happening to it. KDE does not deserve to die like this.

~~~
purerandomness
KDE just recently received a 300k donation [1].

You seem to remember KDE from the 4.x dark times. Give it a try, it has vastly
improved in the last 2 years.

[1] [https://dot.kde.org/2018/10/15/kde-ev-receives-sizeable-
dona...](https://dot.kde.org/2018/10/15/kde-ev-receives-sizeable-donation-
handshake-foundation)

------
debt
“pauses for a call, incoming or outgoing”

This is a pretty standard feature on most mobile operating systems. It’d be
like saying “I like the how I get a notification when I receive an sms”

~~~
akerro
Does it also pause youtube (or any other in browser multimedia) or other
platforms?

~~~
shreyansh_k
It does as long as the application handles the standard events regarding
play/pause.

