Hi everyone,
I currently use Telegram to send photos, PDFs and text messages between my Android phone and my Debian laptop. It works, but everything goes through a third-party server, and I would like a fully local, privacy-friendly alternative.
What I need: Send photos, PDFs and other files in both directions (phone ↔ laptop) Send short text messages or clipboard content Works locally
Thanks for any advice and experience!
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kdeconnect
Synchthing.
cx explorer on android, both ways, it can act as ftp server, or sftp client. laptop can do both aswell, of course
Whilst I’m not sure if it covers everything, I’ve been playing around with a Nextcloud on my home server which is just visible to devices on my home network (i.e. so my phone has to be connected to WiFi at home to reach it).
Since your laptop is Linux you can easilly run Nextcloud in it as a service.
Cable
seriously, wtf are we doing anymore. you plug in a usb cable and be done with it.
also, don’t forget the power and speed of adb vs mtp.
Ich nutze “Relay”(das ist ziemlich neu) oder KDE-Connect. Die funktionieren ähnlich gut.
KDE connect works well. You could also use something like nextcloud or SFTP and always on VPNs and whatnot. Not sure what your setup looks like.
Kde connect
KDE Connect
This one beats any other option mentioned by miles.
Thank you guys. I’ve been using LocalSend for a year or so, and recently I noticed it’s Documents & Data is over 1 GB on my iPhone.
To me, that means that there’s some cache you cannot remove (the only way to clear that on iOS is to remove the app: I have just tried that, and it solves the issue).
I thought KDE Connect is more bloated. Turned out, it’s just 8 MB; and it has the ability to clear cache. All my computers are on Linux (Gnome or sway: perhaps that’s why I forgot about the KDE Connect), and I thought hey, really, why not!
So, as someone who used LocalSend for a long time: it does the job, but KDE Connect is just better, it turned out.
with kde connect and gsconnect you can use Nautilus to browse files over sftp. faster than mtp if you have a hight speed wifi connection. you also get sometimes useful features of notifications, sms message access and sending.
On Gnome you can use GSConnect for integration with Gnome shell.
Syncthing is local and doesn’t use a cloud. It will sync directories between a linux machine and an android phone.
the desired use is not a good use case for syncthing. i use it for things like syncing my game saves between computers or anything that works like dropbox.
it is overkill for one-off file transfer and creates a dependency that probably is not desired. if mirroring is the need, then it is the right tool - if you don’t have your own NAS with a drive/dropbox service, which is just cleaner.
Do you use the Syncthing-Fork F-Droid app for android?
I use local send. It’s fantastic
KDE Connect can do clipboard contents, notifications, SMS from your PC, and file transfer, but I like Syncthing’s approach of folder synchronization better than sending files individually. I use both.
you can browse android folders from your pc as if it is a local volume, so you can copy files in bulk easily without having to keep a mirror.
KDE Connect is phenomenal! I freaking love that when I copy text on my PC or Phone it shows up on the clipboard of the other one. And being able to take real screenshots with Print Screen, crop them, and send them straight to my phone with like 3 clicks instead of taking an awkward photo of my monitor when I’m trying to text someone about something on my computer is perfect.
I’m surprised by this workflow instead of sending the text from the computer (using KDE connect if “text” means SMS in this context).
i just wish it worked with Signal, GVoice. my cell # is more of a placeholder than an in-use communication endpoint.
Those have a desktop app and a web version, respectively. I can see the appeal of having everything in one place, but you can already use Signal and GVoice from your PC.
Agreed, I also use both. Currently syncthing only does my password database, but heavily considering setting it up for the rest of my standard phone files too, and dropping Immich, since every time I go to check on it they have released another breaking update (or at least released several new updates and the app refuses to connect anymore) and I am tired of it.
LocalSend? https://localsend.org/
Second that. LocalSend is nice for this.
LocalSend is the best solution.
I can also reccomend KDE Connect for everything except file sharing; even though that’s the specific ask in this post, I’m just a huge evangelizer for it even if it’s file transfer as implemented is terrible in my experience.
KDE Connect is super convenient
Localsend: https://f-droid.org/packages/org.localsend.localsend_app