Today we are releasing a new version of KDE Connect for Android phones and the Plasma desktop. This shiny new release includes some nice features contributed by great people in the KDE Community (and outside it). You guys are awesome!
The first feature I want to show you was contributed by Ahmed Ibrahim, and allows you to use your phone screen as a touchpad for your computer. Do you have a mediacenter or another setup where you don’t want to have a mouse and a keyboard always attached? With KDE Connect we will make you able to use your phone as a wireless input device!
And by the way, do you guess how I sent this screenshot from my phone to my laptop? Of course, I used the “Share to” feature and I sent it over KDE Connect :) In this new release, we made Android able to receive files as well, sent from a computer or another Android phone. You requested this feature for long, and finally here it is! You will be able to send files from Dolphin or from the also new command line interface, all thanks to Aleix Pol!
This version also has several improvements under the hood, has a bunch of bugs fixed and can now run on FreeBSD systems, thanks to Raphael Kubo.
To end this post I just want to thank, once again, everybody who sent patches and specially the awesome translation team of KDE, who made KDE Connect already available in 25 languages (including Catalan, my native tongue :)!
KDE Connect 0.7.2 tarball
KDE Connect 0.7.2 Android app on Google Play
KDE Connect 0.7.2 Android app on F-Droid
Edit 29/06/14: Please note that it might take a while for some distributions to release the new version. If you don’t want to compile it yourself, please be patient (and/or poke your distribution packagers until they update it).
Edit 01/07/14: A new minor version of both Android and Plasma been released today, fixing some problems found in the previous 0.7. The links above have been updated.
Albert Vaca's blog 
Hey, I’ve downloaded archive, but no compilation instruction appended.
Please give me some info about installing it. I have oldest version from kubuntu repository. Thanks for awesome app
Please ask your distribution packagers to provide an up-to-date packages.
Source code archives are usually not meant for regular users, but for distribution packagers which will then turn them into a package which will be provided via your distribution’s package repositories.
But if a “regular user” wants to try out a new release one can help. Especially that building software yourself gets you more testers.
So to build it on Ubuntu you need to install the dependencies:
libqjson-dev
libxtst-dev
and probably (but not sure cause I already had these installed so cannot tell which are really needed):
libphonon-dev
kdelibs5-dev
If you get some error messages during building/configure try to find the missing files using “apt-file search”.
After installing then do this:
# cd kdeconnect-kde-0.7
# mkdir build
# cd build
# cmake .. -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr
# make
now you can either do
# make install
or build a debian package using the “checkinstall” program
# sudo checkinstall -D -y –maintainer=”$USER” –pkgversion=”0.7″ –pkgname=”kdeconnect” –backup=no –install=yes
After that it should appear in the settings and as plasma widget. If not you might have to restart plasma and call kbuildsycoca4
Bye
Hookahey
And that’s one of the reasons why I didn’t provide such instructions in the first place:
Installing anything manually into /usr as prefix is downright dangerous to your systems stability and integrity.
Either do it right (build a proper package on your own or install into a local prefix) or don’t do it at all.
You’ve got a point there with /usr as prefix. That’s why I should have only mentioned the second option, building a package with checkinstall. Using that package is safe in that it warns before overwriting something and is able to remove the installed files but well it does no magic. On the other side if one is willing to compile and install software then they should be aware that it could be harmful.
Just saying that is more of use to let people experiment than telling them to wait for others to do it. Nowadays each project should provide build instructions anyway with the sources. The people can then decide themselves if it is too complicated to build it and they want to wait for the distribution package.
Alternatively, as I don’t know of an up to date Ubuntu package one could probably just download the latest kde-connect rpm from Fedora and use “alien” to convert it to a deb package. I did not test this, though, so no clue if it works.
http://xmodulo.com/2014/01/integrate-android-kde-linux-desktop.html
I’ve also thought of implementing a “trackpad” use the multi-touch gestures. Awesome!!
There are currently no multitouch features in the touchpad. Two finger scrolling and two finger tapping (for a right click) would be nice.
It has been added in 0.7.1!
Then, do it! :)
That’s so freaking awesome!
This give me an idea: KDE Connect can be extended to allow Android Phone to be a remote for presentations (I can already click to go to next slide but that’s a bit limited :p).
Thank you guys SOOOOO much! Intergrations like these are imho very important for the adoption of KDE Software.
I just installed it on opensuse and even though I wonder why I have to disable the firewall on opensuse completetly during pairing, it is now working very well. Thanks!
How did you install it under Opensuse? I am trying to do the same thinkg and I keep umping into errors… :-(
Replying to my own post:
sudo zypper install libjson-devel
sudo zypper install libkde4-devel
sudo zypper install libqjson-devel
sudo zypper install libqca2-devel
sudo zypper install gettext-tools
cd kdeconnect-kde-0.7.1/
mkdir -v build
cd build
cmake .. -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr/local
make
sudo make install
and… You are done!
to bad for centos7:
CMake Error at CMakeLists.txt:8 (cmake_minimum_required):
CMake 2.8.12 or higher is required. You are running version 2.8.11
All these wonderful features and still no ability to respond from the computer when you get a text message? Kinda makes this app still useless quit adding more features instead of the same one that everyone has been wanting.
This is a free software project, so why don’t you help us implementing that feature you like? And please note that I don’t work for you, so please don’t tell me what I have to do ;)
Right!
Nice. Are there any small nuisance or junior jobs that an Android noob can fix for you? I am learning Android and would love to contribute.
I’m not Albert but you could tweak the UI a bit. For example the Android client still uses the menu key which is deprecated since Android 4.4.
That sounds fair. I could look into it. UI tends to be the easy part because it’s mostly XML hooked to the code. I don’t have a phone with menu keys. I see a top action bar for settings on my Nexus 4. I am not sure what you are looking exactly. Screenshots?
Okay gotcha. If you running it on a device with physical keys then you are shown bottom menu options. If you running it on device with no physical keys then you are shown action bar.
It has been requested several times to add support for browsing not only the internal memory but also other storage systems (mainly external SD cards…). Shouldn’t be hard to do but will require some C++ coding.
Anyway ask on the mailing list and we will probably find more stuff for you if you are interested :)
Albert, could you have a look at https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1114197 ?
New packages will land in testing in a short while which should fix your issue.
Great update. Hoping to test out the touchpad feature when the KDE Connect package is updated for Kubuntu 14.04.
Hi, thanks for these feature enhancements and bugfixes.
I still have an issue though – even though I have sshfs-fuse and qca-ossl installed, I am unable to browse the content on my phone. The phone’s mount point stays empty and I am also unable to transfer files from Dolphin to my phone (no error at all, the context menu just does nothing). Am I missing something? As far as I can see, the rest of the functionality works.
Slackware users interested in trying this out should be running Slackware-current and upgrade to my KDE SC 4.13.2 package set; they will get the latest kdeconnect-kde package too: http://taper.alienbase.nl/mirrors/alien-kde/current/latest/
Eric
Eric, I updated my SlackBuild to 0.7 yesterday (http://slackbuilds.org/cgit/slackbuilds/log/?h=user/bosth/updates) and bi-directional file transfers work fine for me under Slackware current.
How do I get that “Send to ‘my phone’ via KDE Connect” context menu element?
(Debian jessie, KDE 4.13.1, kdeconnect 0.5.2)
by updating to kdeconnect 0.7
apparently i need kdeconnect 0.7 package. c’mon debian maintainers :'(
I LOVE the new trackpad feature, I can see myself using it out of laziness in the future, although I’m hoping more features such as two finger scrolling and long presses for dragging stuff get added.
Another thought on that feature is if you’re doing a trackpad feature, why not go all out and throw the keyboard in there too? :P
Hello and thank you for this useffull app! By the way KDE Connect is included by default in our Linux distribution USU Linux – htttp://learnfree.eu :)
Great!!!
Thanks :)
Unfortunately the Android app version 0.7.1 refuses to run on my Sony Xperia Tipo :(
It just terminates silently.
Version 0.6.x was running fine…
Is there a way how to get the old APK somewhere ?
In F-Droid repository:
https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdfilter=kde&fdid=org.kde.kdeconnect_tp
[offtopic] care to change blog description? ;-)
Done, thanks :P
Is the frameworks branch already supposed to be basically usable?
All I get from the kdeconnect systray icon is an empty popup with “No paired devices available” and no way to pair a device.
This is now working on my BB10 device, this is brilliant, keep up the great work. I would say that it does suck a lot of battery power, if you could tweak this so it is a headless app as well. Which version of Android are notifications supported on, my phone is stating they are not supported. I’ve linked to this blog from CrackBerry
Kubuntu Package: http://packages.ubuntu.com/utopic/kdeconnect-kde
Works in 14.04 (trusty) too!
There is already one for the trusty-backports. Use this to upgrade:
sudo apt-get install kdeconnect/trusty-backports
thanks for the update, everything is working fine but the mouse touchpad. No error messages just the pointer does not respond to the moves. Im using a Nexus 5 and fedora 20. any ideas? New feature to send files from PC to movil works good.
please dircard my last comment, I updated the kernel, recompile and everything is working really fine. Im also able to browse phone files from dolphin which was not possible with the previous version.
many thanks for this wonderful software.
Yesterday was my first try with KDE Connect in Chakra Linux!!! wonderful!! thanks a lot.
The only thing I hate is that I can’t use it in my Debian Wheezy :( shit!!
but Thanks !!!!!
Gracias
KDE Connect is wonderful. It works very well indeed with my Galaxy S3. I don’t think I can live without it! Will there be a Desktop SMS to phone plugin coming? Would that work?
THANK YOU!
Thank you for this huge work. That was something i was waiting for a lot of time
i don’t know if this is the propper place to ask you (if don’t please tell me where to ask, an i will), why in an 4.2.2 Android with MIUI-3.11.8 version have the following addon failliure:
“Complementos cuya carga ha fallado (bloque para más información) Sincronizar notificaciones”.
When i press in the message, a window appear saying that this function is not available in these Android version”.
Is this because MIUI version or is it a bug?
Thans in advance and congratulations for this amazing android app. It helps a lot to the Linux users!
help my: make: *** No targets specified and no makefile found. Stop. :((
might be in the wrong directory or wrong path…
Try :
cmake ../kdeconnect-kde/ -DQT_QMAKE_EXECUTABLE=/usr/bin/qmake-qt4 -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr/local
i noticed i cant long press to move widows using the touchpad option and there is some lag. but very cool eitherway :)
Unfortunately the mousepad plugin didn’t work with me, the computer doesn’t respond with any signal sent from the mobile and I don’t know why.
I use Samsung Galaxy Tab 3.
I’m testing kde-connect now by myself and found, that on kubuntu you need to add the “kde-connect” – Miniprogramme(german) but i think, it means the programm in the taskbar, where you cann add … you need the kde-connect symbol there …
The touchpad and the file sharing does not work for me – running on a Motorola Droid Bionic under JB and Kubuntu 14.04.
The only thing that does seem to work is the charge status of the phone in the system bar.
:(
Hoping these get worked out as this project paired with Yatse (XBMC remote) will allow me to completely control my HTPC with my phone!
I’m thinking of writing a remote shutdown plugin but I’m not sure where to start.
Hi, will there be an option to connect through an IP? Most Networks I use got seperated WLAN and LAN, Avahi won’t work in that cases.
But a fantastich work so far!
Hi,
PCLinuxOS has latest KDE-Connect 0.7.2 in their repos, and it Just Works!
I have a Motorola Moto G…
I noticed one detail; it is necessary to have the KDE-Connect app with screen ON on the mobile. If not, the communation (Dolphin File Access, etc) breaks with “File not found” errors. Is there a way to main communication without the screen ON all the time?
Problem solved for now by extending screen-off timeout to 5min…
Thanks for a great tool, MTP can be de-installed!
Best regards
Gunther
This is such a great application, can you make it more “universal” by making sure it can also run detached from KDE? Like giving it a detached interface and a nautilus plugin for the files, but still keeping the KDE dependencies…
It actually can run in any environment and we only would need a Gnome interface to support Gnome. The same with Unity and other DE. The backend only exposes DBUS interfaces so it is completely independent of the interface.
Thanks for this wonderful app. I am using this with my Moto G. I noticed that the clipboard content gets synced only if it is less than or equal to 398 characters. Is there a reason for this limitation?
That’s a bug. I don’t know if it’s already in the bug tracker or not.
Are we going to get support for dragging objects with the track pad feature, and maybe a keyboard function? Otherwise I absolutely love what KDE Connect has to offer.
the app is great, albert! keep it going!
Congratulations on this brilliant project and achieving such excellence so quickly!
Just one issue – I have been unable to find any website to report bugs and discuss features. Are this blog and the mailing list the only places to do so (you seem overwhelmed with error reports and feature requests here anyway) or is there some place for bug reports and discussions, other than distro-specific websites?
The KDE bug tracker is the most appropriate place to report stuff: http://bugs.kde.org
Thanks.
Albert,
what are the requirements for KDE Connect?
I have Mageia 4 which runs KDE 4.11.4. I will try to compile 0.7.2 to see if it can run on it.
Well I compiled it and it works now on my Mageia 4. But the plugin “remote filesystem browser” does not work: it gives error “sshfs not found in PATH”. I have installed sshsfandroid (costs 2 euros) on my Samsung Galaxy S2 running Android 4.1.2. But the sshfs path is /data/data/com.chaos9k.sshfsandroid/bin/sshfs and that’s not in the path of the user of terminal emulator app or for root.
I did “export PATH=$PATH:/data/data/com.chaos9k.sshfsandroid/bin” but kdeconnect still cannot find it in PATH. This “remote filesystem browser” is the only feature that I really want. Anybody knows a solution?
or is “remote filesystem browser” broken and will it be replaced by sftp? Because that’s what I think I see at https://projects.kde.org/projects/playground/base/kdeconnect-kde/repository/revisions/master/show/plugins/sftp
You have to install sshfs in your computer, not the phone!!
D’oh!
Ok, remote filesystem browser now works! Although it’s a bit slow reading the directory and files, I can copy (delete) files and directories from and to my internal sdcard0. AAAwesome! But it doesn’t see my external extSDCard (workaround: copy from computer to internal, on phone copy from internal to external).
Albert, this feels like a killer app!
This keeps getting better. Couple of questions though, some devices are showing up as name@device where as others are just showing up as device. Where is KDEConnect getting this from?
Also, I can only view the main internal memory of my phone, the SD card isn’t visible. Is this a ‘feature’ of Android 4.4.2?
Great software! Actually, I am using it also for sharing the clipboard content between two kde desktops! Although it’s the only function (a part from ping) which works, it’s a useful one (I don’t think that there is some other software in kde able to do that simply by selecting text using the mouse, as usual)
Hi there
I would like to use kde-connect at work, but i am having troubles setting it up properly.
The thing is that i have Windows 7 OS and run Kubuntu 14.04 on VirtualBox with Bridged connection. I’ve installed kdeconnect and kdeconnect-kde packages. I’ve installed kdeconnect from google play store. When i run it i see the screen telling me that this device is not paired, On virtualbox desktop i have empty systemsettings module not showing me anything. Can anyone help me to pair my devices? Are there any instructions out there?
ok, nevermind – i guess i have my phone and my virtualbox still on different networks :/
kdeconnect does magic! My laptops battery is discharging at 143119912%. That’s enough power to travel through time, for sure ;-)
Guys, I can’t help as I can’t code, but the mouse integration thing is _not_ working at all. Or I’m doing something wrong, but I can’t tell, really.
I’d be glad to help with any debugging.
Thanks in advance
Is there a solution for using KDE connect over a tethered connection? Should it be possible to always use the wifi connection as using the external interface does not work anyway?
I am now able to create connection between my smartphone and KDE over a tethered connection after digging through the code, initiating the first connection over a regular wifi connection and after disabling the firewall, whereas I guess the last step was important ;)
Good work!
I would like to know how do i remove my old phone from the list, I want to unpaired it?
Felicitaciones por la aplicación! Ya la estoy usando y es excelente!
Brand new to KDE. I would like to try KDE Connect, but my laptop and my desktop are typically using ethernet (laptop about 50% and the desktop doesn’t have wireless). Add to that that even if I were on my work’s wifi network, I don’t want to connect my personal phone to that network. Is there any way I can use KDE connect on either or both of these machines?
Thanks
You don’t need to be on wifi, but both devices have to be in the same network.
So it sounds like I can’t use it in an office environment where I don’t want my personal Android device on the office network. Is it possible to use the usb cable instead? (I mean technically possible, not whether the product currently supports it, which it seems not to)
It would be possible anything that allows you to create a network: bluetooth, cable… actually, currently if you tether your computer via USB cable from your phone, the devices can already reach each other using KDE Connect.
Hi,
i’d like to mention that OpenMandriva Lx 2014.0 and 2014.1 release supports by defaul kdeconnect
why only some players are recognized in multiplayer remote control?
vlc and amarok are in player list, but smplayer and kaffeine are not.
in these cases is possible at least connect volume control with pavucontrol?
Awesome job !!!
The player needs to support MPRIS. Right now we don’t have integration with pulseaudio, but would be a nice thing as well.
..or with kmix. like kmixremote does.
Well, if we have to add support for something, that will probably be pulseaudio and not kmix, to be more future-proof.
Probably you are right, but kmix works with every sound system.
Hola Albert, antes de nada felicitarte por este fantástico programa es realmente útil, quería comentarte con el problema que me encuentro tanto yo como un compañero con distros distintas pero con el mismo problema común.
Al compartir un vídeo grabado con el móvil en .3gp y compartirlo con el pc mediante kdeconnect se corrompe, al pc siempre llega el vídeo con menos mb que el original y por lo tanto no se puede reproducir, a ver si puedes indicarme como solucionar el problema.
Mi distro es Archlinux con kernel 3.17.4 y KDE 4.14.3, la versión de kdeconnect instalada en Arch es la 0.7.3 y en el móvil la ultima del market de android. El compañero se encuentra con el mismo problema con Linux Mint 17 KDE
Saludos y de nuevo felicitarte por esta fantástica aplicación.
Hi, i want to try to contribute with a plugin, but how i start? I need some, guidance, in how to start, some docs to understand the structure etc…
Mainly in the kde part.
Thanks.
Of course, what a fantastic site and enlightening posts, I will bookmark your blog.Have an awsome day!