In a recent informal meeting of KDE users in Seattle, Andrew Lake from the KDE Visual Design Group gave me some ideas he had for KDE Connect. Since I think that we all have a different vision and different ideas that are possible to implement on top of KDE Connect, I decided to write this post asking for your ideas, in some kind of community brainstorming.
Also, since the last time I made a post about possible features for KDE Connect, a lot of them have been implemented or are work in progress, so I hope this post achieves the same effect :)
Here is my personal list of possible features:
- Plugin for power management (sleep, shut down, etc).
- “Find my phone” plugin, that makes your phone ring even if it is silenced.
- Add media controls from the Android lock screen.
- Plugin to keep your computer unlocked while phone is reachable.
- Use the phone as a location provider for the desktop.
- Akonady resources sync with Android (contacts, calendar…).
- Plugin to print from your phone to your computer’s printer.
- Add support for drag’n drop for touchpad plugin.
- Port to other desktops and platforms: Gnome, Unity, MacOS, Windows…
- Publish and maintain the iOS port that Yang Qiao begun this GSOC (any iPhone user around?)
And here is some stuff is already being worked on:
- Answer SMS from the desktop (by David Edmunson).
- Pair with a specific IP address or hostname (by Achilleas Koutsou).
Now it’s your time to come up with more ideas in the comments! And of course feel free to give your opinion/enhance the ideas on my list.
Update: As Aleix Pol suggested, I created a todo.kde.org for KDE Connect that I will be updating with the ideas that come up in the comments.
Albert Vaca's blog 
Would be really nice if it was possible to use KDE connect while using USB tethering (or wireless hotspot) at the same time. Maybe I’m just too stupid to configure Android networking properly, but having to manually fiddle with Linux ifconfig and friends on the phones terminal is absolutely no fun business.
I used KDE Connect in conjunction with USB tethering just yesterday.
Cool works. Maybe I should’ve had another coffee before trying it yesterday.
Great ideas. I have a few other suggestions:
Connect via Bluetooth. I can’t use the network connection in my office due to the firewall. This would also brr much more useful for the screen locking even if I did have a Wi-Fi connection since I would want to lock the screen when I leave my desk, but using Wi-Fi it would unlock anywhere in my building.
In addition to lock screen media controls, it would also be nice to have notification area media controls (ideally expandable ones).
I don’t know if it is possible, but it would be nice to be able to send web pages to and from the phone. You could share a web page to the phone then open it on the computer in the default browser, or drag and drop or copy and paste it from the computer and open it in the phone browser.
It would be nice if there were android actions for things like opening the media player control our touchpad control. I am not sure the technical details of how actions work, but they appear as 1×1 widgets but can also be set to gestures or other quick-access tools in some launchers.
It would be nice if we could use the desktop keyboard and mouse for the phone, although I am not sure android allows that.
It would be nice if we could use the phone as a webcam or microphone.
It works be nice if there was an automatic background file or folder synchronizer.
I don’t know if it is possible, but it would be nice to be able to send web pages to and from the phone. You could share a web page to the phone then open it on the computer in the default browser, or drag and drop or copy and paste it from the computer and open it in the phone browser.
It already does this partially. Use the share button on the phone to send a webpage to your PC browser. Also, it allows for shared clipboard between your android device and your pc
That is already possible with the latest update 0.7.3 :)
First: I use this app since I found out about it and it’s super awesome! (I patched smplayer to add mpris support, feels like magic). Only the file browsing is laggy, but I take that for a teething problem.
Keep up the good work!!
I very much like your ideas, especially:
– Akonadi resources sync with Android (contacts, calendar…).
That would finally eliminate the need for a “cloud”!
A question to:
– Answer SMS from the desktop.
Would this also be possible for other messenger services like Whats-App, Threema, … ?
It’s not possible to send messages through Whatsapp or other messaging apps because they don’t provide a public API for that :(
But maybe it is posible to send keyboard inputs to the phone? like writing in the pc while there’s a cursor active on android
Maybe Telegram? The client part is open source
– voice call redirect from smartphone to pc? (yeah, like ios 8)
I think we will need that Google adds support for something like that…
Plase, make it work through USB.
It works through USB. Tether your Android via USB to your PC and make sure the PC is not connected to any other network.
That seems overly complicated. It would be nice if you could just plug it in and use it without having to worry about network settings.
– Slideshow navigation from smartphone
– Smartphone as webcam
– Barcode scan to desktop
Why, when all the webcam tools (including all the video chat apps) you need already exist on the phone?
If you wanted to record, you just record on the phone and then use KDE Connect to send the file.
From the top of my head, to see/hear it (at least see caller/s’ video) at a bigger screen, if you’re at the PC. In a media center then it’d be great!
Maybe:
– On incoming call: Possibility to accept call from desktop + switch phone to loud speaker.
I am still hoping for a port to other mobile systems like Sailfish OS, Firefox OS and maybe Ubuntu touch :)
Would be really awesome if we get some sort of standard out of this that all of the mobile systems and all/many desktops implement. So its not limited to AndroidKDE anymore.
https://github.com/Bjoe/KConnectClientLib
Wow this is awesome! Actually I think this changes should be merged into the main git repo, so we don’t have to maintain two versions of the code. Right now the main repo is already split in more small parts, and for example the kded related code is already in a different directory. The last goal should be to have a Qt-only repo with a backend without user interface, and a different repo for the UI and KDE integration (plus another one for Gnome, Unity…), that should use DBus to communicate with the desktop-agnostic backend. This separation is quite done already, but not completely.
I know the programmer in person. He told me that his modifications are very crude ATM. GPLv3 was also an oversight, not a conscious decision over GPLv2.
Email him if you want to get in touch. He’s very busy, so a reply can take a few days.
Hi,
An enormous +1 for a port to Firefox OS.
I would love to control Gnome with KDE Connect on FFOS
Thank you a lot for this app anyway :)
-use it as a gamepad with touch screen controls or hardware controls
Or, vice versus, use your USB gamepad connected to your computer.
It would be good to get this in a todo.kde.org board, so that we can keep track of those and even suggest people to give a go to one of them.
I didn’t know about that tool :O I will have a look at it!
A Bluetooth support would be very great. Currently I cannot use KDE Connect at work because the computers and smartphones are on different networks.
I think the akonadi resource is a duplicate of the existing Google akonadi ressource (contacts ans calendars). Just reuse it.
avoiding google is not
Not everyone wants/can use Google to sync their calendars between devices, and not everyone needs to sync between more than 2 devices (computer + phone), so I support the idea of having an Akonadi resource for these.
Having the possibility to consult SMS and share webpage / links with your desktop browser ?
Or, viewing call log, and improving sending of file
I implemented the “answer to sms” directly with the notification but a small applet for all threads would be great functionality (I’ll have a look). +1
Answering directly from the notification can be handy, we could merge that into the repo :) Anyway, a good integration with telepathy is something we need.
– give a hint to open firewall ports 1714-1764 tcp and udp on the PC to be able to see the computer. On Fedora the firewall is on by default
Yes, actually I would like to add a “Add new device” button that tells you how to install the Android app and add some troubleshooting like that there.
openSUSE ships a firewall config file that lets you do this in a few clicks, but I think it is dependent on the firewall configuration tool for each distro.
KDE Connect is awsome and some of the ideas on your list are great like the keeping the phone unlocked etc. SMS answering a feature I am so looking forward to – I hate writing on the small screen.
One feature I would like to to extend the sftp access to the memory card of the phone if it has one. My photo’s and music are stored there as it is a bigger and more portable card and I transfer a lot between desktop and phone. Having a way to reach that would be great in addition to the primary storage on the phone. I don’t know about you but I have very poor success with the mtp kioslave and have resorted to gmtp which is not ideal in any way.
But I want to say a heartfelt thanks to the devs for making the connection between phone and desktop so seamless with KDE Connect – this form of convergence is certainly what is needed by me!
That’s already possible in the latest version 0.7.3 :) I have only tested it with a couple of phones, though, so it’s kind of beta.
Just installed 0.74 on my OpenSuSE system. You guys are doing a great job with this. Well done!
Using Dolphin I can’t see the SD Card in my Samsung S4 but I can easily send a file from KDE to my phone by right clicking it. Do I need to change any settings in order to see the SD card?
Is it possible to share files between pc´s through KDE Connect and not only pc to smartphone? If not, it would be very very useful.
Thank you.
If you have an up-to-date version it’s possible both ways: right-clicking a file in Dolphin should allow you to send it to your phone.
Is there a KIO slave for it?
Very cool.
Will the SMS answereing realized with KTp? It would be cool if KDE Connect is integrated in KTp, so that you can not just answere SMS, but also send new SMS to people from my (Akonadi) contacts.
An important feature would be pairing via Bluetooth (sometimes pairing is not possible via WLan)
I would like to have a kind of diagnostic tool, which helps if the connection does not work between phone and pc. I sometimes have the problem (in the same wifi, wifi active on both ends) that the connection does not work. I don’t have a clue. If there would be a diagnostic tool, helping to discover what does not work, this would be great.
stream music and phone calls from phone to computer
Perhaps using ADB for backup APK, install APK and other opportunities offered by ADB, detailed information about the phone…..
A couple of days ago, using the mousepad feature, i thought “How nice it would be if i could use the phones keyboard together with the mousepad” only to find out it was already implemented! Very cool!
Some of the features mentioned:
Use the phone as a location provider for the desktop.
I keep GPS and such stuff deactivated most of the time. I usually know where i am and i don’t want Google to track me. So no, nothing i care about.
Akonady resources sync with Android (contacts, calendar…).
There are already other means of getting that done, but why not. It’s quite handy to have contacts and stuff accesible and in sync on almost any device. It’s always good to have the choice of means.
Port to other desktops and platforms: Gnome, Unity, MacOS, Windows…
There’s other platforms around? Really? (Just kidding)
Answer SMS from the desktop (by David Edmunson).
From all of the above, if i had to vote for one single feature, this would be it!
I know that Whispersystems/TextSecure is working on something similar. Maybe there’s room for cooperation. And i believe that this is one important thing for the future, that goes in the direction of convergence betweeen mobile devices and Desktop computing (which is not dead and which i believe will not die as soon as some might believe). Or, as Seth Godin said: “When the masses connct to the internet with devices without keyboard, who’s left to change the world?”
One more point to mention: My phone always turns off the screen (and touch) after a couple of seconds if it gets no input. This is a bit distracting as the mousepad does not work then. Maybe you could implement a feature that prevents the phone from doing so when the mousepad is active.
Thanks
Thorsten
Uh, I would even consider that the screen turns off when the touchpad plugin is active, I’ll take note!
Plasma media center remote with browsing and playlists and stuff.
Screen syncing and sharing, ie cloning and dualscreen (which would be combinable with touchpad =D ). I realize the bandwidth and processingpower might limit the fps/quality, but both of those are growing fast =)
Connect via Bluetooth, 3g internet or 4g internet or whichever connection the phone has.
Control KAlarm, so you dont have to get up (again!) to set your music alarm
Yeah, and fixing them 100% CPU usage lockups in the computer daemon, and the phone app like “never” connecting after that happens (idunno what unlocks it yet)… I reported that in an email IIRC
I wish KDE Connect would become more firewall-friendly. Right now it has two major issues:
1. Discovering that you should open ports 1714-1764 is difficult. I had to dig through this blog’s post comments to find that out.
2. The ports are too many. Some firewalls make it difficult to open a range of ports (e.g. *buntu’s ufw). I find it unlikely that so many ports are actually necessary (please correct me if I’m wrong). One, or maximum two ports should be enough.
Well, each device takes a port, so if a port is already in use the app just tries the next one for every new device (until it loops).
Why would each device take a separate port? This doesn’t make sense. Apache serves many clients on a single port (80), the same should be possible for KDE Connect’s service.
It’s the way we implemented it, but of course there is room for improvement!
Ok, I see. Please count this post as a vote for improving this aspect.
(I don’t mean to sound ungrateful. KDE Connect is an excellent piece of software, and I appreciate your efforts. It’s just this specific feature which is not planned very well).
No entry on todo.kde.org about improving this?
There is one about making the port range to open more explicit: https://todo.kde.org/?controller=task&action=readonly&task_id=564&token=27364ace24813c264a6065a06a2f2174c17e3e1180bc810f76c6c606202b
About needing less ports, I want to do some research first to write a todo somewhat specific about it.
Isn’t there a possibility to use UPnP to open the right ports automagicelly ?
Multiseat support
(I hope this really is missing and I am not too stupid to make it work on my machine.)
We have 3 displays/keyboards/mice attached to one machine, but only the first user who logs in, is able to use kde-connect.
I don’t have this kind of setup so I can not test it, but the only thing that may not work in that case is the automatic discovery. Other stuff should be fine: dbus is not shared among users, ports in use are skipped dynamically… Maybe you can try when we implement manually connecting to an IP without the discovery :)
Send media links to pc for playing, like chromecast does ;-)
Perhaps you can implement a chromecast receiver.
iPhone user here, please please please release the iOS version. :-)
I’d love to be able to use KDEConnect in presenting stuff more. For me, a gwenview plugin would be great, but maybe it’s posible to do something more common?
I think it would probably be more efficient to implement MPRIS2 support on the gwenview side, rather than specially implementing support in every application.
Hi Albert, a good feature to add could be the possibility to write directly from the desktop, like Remote Keyboard (https://github.com/onyxbits/remotekeyboard) does.
Hello, I would like a Presentation plugin that interacts with Okular, Calligra Stage, LibreOffice Impress to flip between slides easily. Maybe with the following functions:
– one slide forward (standard action that should be easily hitable)
– one slide backward
– a slide dialer like thing to quickly browse through the slides
– fullscreen / windowed switch
I would like to add “blank screen” to that list, if it should go that way and a timer.
Seconded.
Iphone Version! my wife has gone the iphone route, so it would be great if she could access desktop stuff without having to go via itunes!
for myself, automatically add storage card of phone as a mount point would be great.
many thanks for this amazing app!
Here: http://quickgit.kde.org/?p=scratch%2Fyangqiao%2Fkdeconnect-ios.git and http://blog.yangqiao.fr/
Please show ALL notifications, as seen on Androids notification screen, with their icons, not just some types.
Currently on my phone, I have a notification telling me how long the phone will take to charge, a notification from K9 telling me about unread emails, a notification telling me my storage is running out, and a notification telling me that TextSecure is unlocked, and more. On the desktop, all i get is “Battery Discharging 85%” despite notification sync being on. For whatever reason, only some types of notifications ever seem to sync currently, and even those don’t show the image / icon associated with the notification.
Ideally, these would also be expandable with their actions available, too, eg in the mail app, you can drag down on the notification to see two options “Mark read” and “Archive”. I’d love to be able to do the same on the desktop.
Two big thumbs up for “Find my phone” option. Bare minimum would be to make it ring (immediately, not in 10 minutes like Android Device Manager). Ideal, would also be to be able to see the phone’s current location as per location services (temporarily enabling them, if needed).
I just had huge problems with the app Cerberus telling me my phone was miles away, moving, dismissing messages sent to it etc. I was just about to call the cops, when my neighbor noticed it was in my car in the driveway… >.<
Just for any maps involved, please use OSM and not Google Maps.
I’m also really pro OSM :)
KDE already has a maps provider: Marble.
I too would be happy about more documentation and/or help dealing with firewalls and general connection troubles. I only learned about having to whitelist KDE-Connect by trial and error.
In addition, it would be great if I could somehow push links directly between browsers (somebody above has mentioned this one already, too).
Thanks for your great work!
Could we please move this to somewhere that ideas can be up/downvoted, like the brainstorming section of the KDE forums? There’s already an account requirement to comment ideas on this blog post.
wow the feature for answering from the desktop is fantastic!!
Better support for android 4.0, 4.1 and 4.2 please :(
Notification support, usign accessibility API, would be very welcome
I love KDEConnect!
I would like to sync amarok with the music I’m playing on my phone. When I come home I rather prefer listen music from my PC than from the phone.
I don’t know if it’s something wrong with my phone/laptop but when I’m copying files phone->pc and the screen turn off, the transfer stops. It could be possible to solve that?
Thanks for your work!!
Please allow us to select which notifications get sent to the desktop. Google now keeps sending all those weather reports every few minutes and the only workaround I can figure out is disabling that card on the phone altogether (Don’t want to do that).
I have the same problem. Linconnect for example, lets you chose which notifications are mirroed, that is the right approach.
For me main feature request fore KDE Connect is Bluetooth connection to phone, because WiFi have much more battery usage and I use it very rarely, but Bluetooth on phone and computer is always on.
Integration with digikam (eg. a kipi plugin) to manage pictures on the phone even over the network.
Have you thought about adding a rendezvous server daemon?
Right now both devices have to be in the same broadcast domain.
If you want to connect from one device to the other, a rendezvous server could send the needed device ip on request.
If they aren’t able to connect this way, even serve as a tunnel.
This would be a great addition, esp. for features like “Find my phone” when it is only connected to its mobile network
I think one of the most important things to do is making it platform-independent – phone client working on Android, Windows Phone, Bada, iPhone, Nokia, ecc, computer client working on all Linux DEs, but also on Windows and Mac OS X.
Notification with buttons would also be nice.
> Plugin to keep your computer unlocked while phone is reachable.
Instead of this will be good to see alternative of Gnome BlueProximity application – auto unlock computer on phone is near zone, and auto lock computer when phone is out of zone.
I have an iPhone and an iPad and would be happy to test a kde connect client for iOS. I love it on android, it works so well.
Your proposed plugin to print from phone to computer’s printer would be seriously awesome….
I think the media remote control can be further improved to use a media player’s MPRIS Tracklist interface. This will allow the user to select a particular track from the current playlist (and also view all the tracks in the current playlist).
Ok,
1) Instead of answer a phone call, let to choose a phone reply (i.e busy now) to inmediately action on the phine.
2) make in the desktop, the easy sharing icon from phone to move files or info between desktop to phone. sharing originated from desktop.
Thanks for the app and blessings
+1 for a port for SailfishOS, wich uses Wayland + Qt.
OK. It may sound ugly so I would say but what if a little copy Apple? In Yosemite added a couple of cool features, such as answering a phone call from your PC and even record the conversation.
That might take a fair bit of effort to accomplish, and personally I’m hoping for SMS/message replies first. Being able to reply to texts via my office desktop would legitimately make me drop my trusty old Nokia N9 for an Android phone.
Ok.. I understand!! ;) Anyway, great job!
It would be nice being able to lock the screen from the phone.
Very much looking forward to IP/hostname options, since my work VPN (for good reasons, and even though as the sysadmin I could change it I don’t want to) puts VPN connections on a different subnet, and as it currently stands this baffles the Android app.
KDE Connect is one of my favorite tools and is already irreplaceable for me. When I have time I will also look to help code some features, but right now I just don’t have the time, so my gratitude for making this awesome tool will have to suffice for now. Regarding feature wishes, I have quite a few:
-Lockscreen/notification integration and better Mpris playlist integration for media(glad to see it already on the todo)
-Launching preset commands/applications (both ways would be a bonus, but not necessary)
-Playback control,notification sync and data transfer between android devices
-Windows support (sometimes you sadly have to use it and KDE connect is one of my most missed features when using windows)
-VNC (perhaps a plugin that starts the VNC server on the computer and automatically starts some VNC APP on Android and connects to the server)
-better handling of some notifications. Sometimes I get a notification that I have a new message, but not the content of the message etc.
-better visualization while transferring files (last time I thought it failed and sent the file multiple times only to notice that it still transferred in the background)
I would like have connet in gtk but well i know is hard. I think that the posibility of call whit my laptop is nice idea, also answer messages of wsap, telegram, maybe this is imposible xd. But the general idea is not only use it for recive notifications.
use camera :)
A pulseaudio controller for when youre in bed watching a movie, and your im app starts beeping and you dont wanna bother… :)
Pulseaudio Volume control from phone to computer will be very good.
Instead of in-app, will be good to see widget on desktop for tune main channel volume, and advanced interface for per-channel and per-source volume control.
At now I use Reverp application for control Pulseaudio volume on Android: https://github.com/hchapman/reverb – it is opensource, so you can get some code from it when creating KDE Connect plugin.
I second that. Maybe in connection with the media control plugin.
I’d like to be able to see and transfer my phone’s music in Amarok via KDE Connect.
And, like someone else said, I would be awesome if I could switch over the playing track to and from my phone.
Wow, how many replies… I think KDE Connect is great so far, but there are a couple of things I would suggest:
1. When moving or copying files from the computer to the smartphone, I usually see how they reach their own folder (storage/sdcard0/kdeconnect/[user]/files. It would be great if we could select the destination folder from the computer.
2. Maybe add a few more features to older Android versions. I have a Galaxy S II, and it uses Android 4.2. I know I am missing things. (Although I plan to switch it to Cyanogenmod, other users won’t.)
albert, i can’t search how i can compile 0.7.3 version in my mageia/kde
Is no instruccionts in README.
So, how can i compile?
Moltes gràcies!
I know about this tutorial, it should work on mageia as well but it’s not updated: http://xmodulo.com/2014/01/integrate-android-kde-linux-desktop.html
I’d ignore the calender/contact syncing for a number of reasons, the first of which is that Android phones often ship with broken CalDAV and CardDAV implementations see: http://dmfs.org/wiki/index.php?title=HTC_Sense_issue)
There are also many extant solutions to this sync use case (e.g ownCloud, even if getting Cal/CardDAV to work is a royal PITA), there is little point in going over an already solved problem IMHO. At least while there are other, more novel things that could be done.
Seeing SMS reply arriving is cool. KDE Connect will display the text message for me before the phone even alerts!
Keep up the good work.
First of all thanks for your great App,
Here are things that I am missing in my daily Desktop-phone interfacing:
– Live text input: Use your desktop keyboard to type directly in any input field on the pone.
– Bidirectional audio interfacing: I listen to podcasts on my phone and to Music on my desktop. How great would it be if I could just use my phone’s earplugs to listen to Music when I leave my computer’s room or use the speakers on my desk to listen to my podcasts?
(I am aware that the second feature is not easy to implement. This is why I haven’t done it myself already, but you awesome people have asked for ideas so here are my itches).
“find my phone” would be a great feature.
Location provider is the second best idea, but it would be most useful in a car where there’s no access point – so connection over bluetooth or in phone hot spot mode would be a prequisite.
Yes, find my phone would be awesome, especially given that the built on android solution can take 10 minutes or more before it starts ringing.
Notify Outgoing calls / Making calls from Desktop. It’s useful for having a registry of all calls. It make it possible to find and elaborate information regarding the
…content of those calls. I am thinking in professional use of it, to know when I´ve called a client, what the conversation was about,… Enough if kdeconnect shows the call log… so we can call other program/srcripts after the event. For instance, some configuration of calling a script after a specific event could be very helpful…
Clear all phone notifications from desktop itself and ability to just read the whatsapp/hike/skype/any messenger text and discard it from notifications.
Since some time (about a week) it doesn’t work anymore for me.
At first were just all the commands, so I deassociated the device.
Unfortunately, I cannot associate it anymore, simply it says “Associating” and then return the button to associate without anything else.
Any help on how to investigate the problem?
Found the problem!
After an update I had to reopen the configuration program of the firewall, that suffices.
And here it comes the suggestion. Is it maybe possible to add in the desktop service a detection of the major firewall services and notice the user about the needing of opening ports/update configurations/maybe do it automatically after a password prompt?
First of all, thanks for this app, it’s awesome.
Secondly, I have a (little) bug : I have multiple notification for some SMS, each having a different part of the original message. I suspect that’s it’s only for long messages (140+) but I have no idea.
Finally my ideas. Keep in mind that I didn’t factor the feasability in. It’s just what I’m dreaming of :
– Bi directionnal screen share (Computer on Phone, Phone on Computer)
– Bi directionnal keyboard share (already done for P->C)
– Bi directionnal camera share (use the C camera on P for chat for ex)
– Bi directionnal mic share
– Bi directionnal sound share : I would love to be able to continue listening to the music I was listening coming home through P headphones, but coming out of C speakers. And the other w
(sorry for the double post)
– Bi directionnal sound share : I would love to be able to continue listening to the music I was listening coming home through P headphones, but coming out of C speakers. And the other way around too.
– Bi directionnal notifications share (with possibility of deleting them)
– IFTTT possibilities : I would like to be able to do something like “When my P rings, mute my TV by runing this command”
– Maybe create an open API for others apps to know the status of the phone (and if in call)
– Bi directionnal automatic sync of folders
– Of course SMS response on C (on the way)
– Be able to respond or hang up a call from the notification on C
– Search in a reverse directory to have the name of an unknown number calling (could be done by a third party with the API above)
And I think with all that, it could really be fun… ;o)
Hi,
It’s not really a new feature but something a little annoying and I think quite easy to correct:
It will be nice that when we share something from android to the desktop and there is only one connected device, android directly send to the desktop instead of asking to choose the device.
KDE Connect is really an awesome app
I thought that already, but then I realized that in that case we probably would like to add a confirmation screen in case you clicked accidentally… so at the end it’s the same number of clicks. Not sure if that was a good decision, though :P
Yes, your probably right. All things considered, I think it’s better to keep a confirmation screen.
I wish it was ported for other platforms such as Gnome and XFCE as well. AFAIK it’s only such an application for Linux and it’s very great but I don’t _always_ use KDE.
I’m loving this application so far. Thank you so much!! I can’t wait for Akonadi integration.
I hope I’m not repeating someone else’s post. I think it would be super awesome if I could use KDE Connect to stream audio from my computer to my phone.
Seems like there is a way to use KDE Connect in Unity (Ubuntu) and Pantheon (Elementary OS) – KDE Connect Indicator.
http://vikoadi.blogspot.de/2014/11/kde-connect-indicator.html
loving it one Unity. Thumbs up for
– anwsering calls/messages from the desktop
– bluethooth
– Unity support
– improved media control for example a slider for the current song position.
– evolution/thunderbird integration (notification on phone about new event in evolution)
– firefox session sync
Maybe this point is exatly what i want:
Akonady resources sync with Android (contacts, calendar…).
I would very much like to see an easy way to backup and restore Contacts and (less important) SMS-history.
Thanks for a really cool app!
I didn’t see this mentioned above: sending tel: links to the phone. These are most common in mobile sites, but the firefox extension Telify will make all recognized phone numbers into a clickable link. Instead of using skype or an SIP app, why not initiate a call using your mobile phone? An optional delay or confirmation on the phone would be icing on the cake.
As for using KDEC over tethering (e.g. for GPS), it works for me over bluetooth tethering, but not wireless or USB.
Hello. Sorry if this is not the best place to ask but, could you add sopport for SMPlayer on multimedia control plugin? Or it is not an issue with KDEConnect side?
Thank you for the great work!
KDE Connect’s multimedia control uses a standard interface called MPRIS, that is also user by KMix, Ubuntu’s Unity shell, and others. To support a player, we only need that it implements MPRIS.
It is strange because kmix does not appear on the multimedia control list. How can I control the sound of my computer from KDE Connect ?
There is no general volume control at this moment, but it is for sure something we have to implement soon!
Thanks :)
Is it also possible to improve the youtube shared video functionnality ? Share a video from youtube to the computer should open the video in a browser. Instead, it create a text file containing the links.
Yes, that should be considered a bug that we have to fix.
Ok so I know with kde-connect you can use your phone as a trackpad and keyboard. It would be really neat if you could/would extend that to use your phone as a game controller. I’m by no means an expert but all I’d think you’d need to do is make a couple skins and map the appropriate keys to the corresponding virtual buttons. I’d be willing to do what I can as far as creating the skins. I’m not an Android dev but I’m guessing you’d want svg’s?
“> And here is some stuff is already being worked on:
Answer SMS from the desktop (by David Edmunson).”
Why limit this to only SMS? For instance, many people in Europe use Whatsapp way more than SMS. It ought to be **plain text sharing** between KDE and any desired messaging app. I don’t know how feasible this is but here goes:
We can already share clipboard. So the user chooses an app remotely from KDEConnect widget on his PC. Be it Whatsapp, SMS or Telegram etc. He types on his keyboard, hits enter/send. The text he typed is in clipboard now. The phone-side KDEConnect client’s only job after this is to punch the text into Whatsapp, SMS, Telegram etc. Hell, you can even write text files or ms word files on your phone from your PC like this :)
The receiving will use the KDE notification tray as is. So when someone replies back, you either need to read it from the tray (maybe this is expandable to show the full text) or just wake your phone and read from there.
What do you guys think?
It’s not possible currently, and what you propose it’s an ugly workaround. If you still have to pick your phone to answer, then you can use the clipboard share from the beginning and we don’t need a special interface that will confuse users (because it doesn’t really send the message) for it.
I am an iPhone user too. Please, release version for iOS. It would be great to have this app on iOS.
Albert, the current version of kde-connect-android on googleplay is 0.7.3.6. I guess this is compatible with kde-connect-kde 0.7.3 or is there a 0.7.3.6 version for kde-connect-kde? Maybe this is a stupid question but the version difference isn’t clear to me. Also where can I find a changelog for kde-connect-android?
Al the 0.7.3.X versions are compatible between them, the last .X are just fixes and minor improvements.
Actually, it should even be compatible with older versions (prior to 0.7.3), but not all the features will work in that case
Screen mirroring (like what Airdroid just did with Airmirror, but that ridiculously is a Windows-only app requiring sign-in to their service) would be a killer feature to have in KDE connect :)
I agree with it. Screen mirroring is really nice to have feature :)
Screen Mirroring would be great if one has “absolute” correlation with touch interface…. but bandwidth is always challenge….
KDE Connect is awesome. I do not use KDE, as I find UNITY much better (personal preference, but I like other DEs also, such as Gnome and Cinnamon (something about Cinnamon is really cool). While KDE was my initial favorite, old Gnome grew on me a lot and now I find Unity to be my favorite and goto DE) Not a flame comment… as I fully respect everyone’s abiliity to choose their DE for their workflow.
Again, KDE connect is awesome. I have been looking for a good mouse/keyboard option for Linux, and I recently saw this on webupd8 (indicator-kdeconnect article). The mouse/keyboard option so ALMOST what I was looking for. My number 1 feature request is:
Support Hacker’s Keyboard inputs. To me this is essential because the keyboard has all of the normal keyboard inputs I want; however, I notice that the implementation as is does not support this input. Hacker’s Keyboard url: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.pocketworkstation.pckeyboard&hl=en
The second input I want to see is a workaround for Samsung Knox. I don’t like getting notifications of access issues. I know you may not have direct control, but I don’t know how to “authorize” this program to access my device… help appreciated.
Yes, there are many good ideas here. It will be great if all are applicable.
The third implementation option I want to see is game controller… especially one with “analog” slider option to support flight type games.
FINALLY, thanks MUCH for a great app. Connection is nearly flawless and I love the mouse/keyboard implementation (looking forward for “Hackers Keyboard” support mentioned above).
Respectfully
Oh…. one more thing. While the mouse/keyboard is great…. really missing the “drag” option for selection. Recommend a “three finger” drag option for selected items/windows…. The key option missing here that makes this a killer application. If I am missing the option some how… let me know. Right now, I work around windows by “two finger right click” and “move” option. Doens’t work for files (copy/paste there), but could be more convenient.
Albert, I had some issue when compiling kdeconnect-kde-0.7.3 and running on Mageia 4:
my build kdeconnect-kde-0.7.3-1.i586.rpm I made with checkinstall command (that I had fixed with https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=853690)
I had to uninstall kdeconnect-kde-0.7.2 and installed kdeconnect-kde-0.7.3
I rebooted my computer
and the kdeconnect widget in panel was a red square with an X
and systemsettings>hardware>kdeconnect:
Cannot load library /usr/lib/kde4/kcm_kdeconnect.so: (libkdeconnectinterfaces.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory)
[root@here vatbier]# updatedb
[root@here vatbier]# locate libkdeconnectinterfaces
/usr/lib/libkdeconnectinterfaces.so.1.0.1
[vatbier@here RPMS]$ su
Password:
[root@here RPMS]# ldconfig
This recreates the linked libraries cache and will (hopefully) fix your libraries.
Then after a reboot it worked (I don’t know the command to reload the panel).
I don’t know whose fault this is, the checkinstall command, the kdeconnect-kde-0.7.3.tar.xz package or Mageia distribution.
Other minor bug: systemsettings>hardware>kdeconnect:
shows next to my two devices SGSII and SamsungGT-P7500 (which I had to re-pair) a second SamsungGT-P7500: how can I remove it from that list?
My apologies if this is not the right place to put this info and question or should this be in kde’s forum?
Looking forward to the implementation of that yummy list of new features from above.
Windows Phone Version? I will love WP Linux Integration!
I would like to remove my old phone from KDEConnect as I repurposed it to someone else. The old phone no longer has the APP installed and I have a new phone connected now. However I cannot find any instructions on how to remove the old, unpaired phone from my KDE Desktop. This causes 2 instances of KDEConnect to run in the system tray.
Just unpair the phone you are not using.
I did but its just stays in the System Tray waiting for me to pair it again.
It should probably disappear after restarting. I’m not sure because it looks like you are not using the non-KDE version, and I don’t really know how it works. You might better report it to the author of your system tray indicator.
Pure KDE and your application only. Is there a path to a file I can either delete or edit?
Oh, there should be no way you can have two icons on the system tray then. Maybe you installed it twice (ie: one from the distro repos’ and one building from sources)? I can not explain what is happening otherwise. And in any case, unpairing a device from System Settings should completely hide it :/
Discovered part of the problem. The old phone isn’t unpairing and I installed KDEConnect via the PPA, never from source. Is there a way I can send a screenshot to you?
That’s strange :/ Deleting the config file should fix it, but I’m still curious about what the root cause is. The config file is in .kde4/share/config/kdeconnectrc
Must-have (Sorry, I just wanted impact… It is for me, though ;) ): pinch to activate Desktop’s Zoom effect?! =O
It could be kind of tricky, though, to not let it confuse during a scroll or context-menu/2-fingers-tap.
I was also thinking about some window-management’s gestures. Possibly using 3 (or maybe 4) fingers.
Then I suggest:
– swipe left/right: activate next/previous window (equivalent to 1 alt+tab/+shift);
– swipe up: present windows;
– pinch in/out: maximize(/restore) or minimize active window;
– swipe down: close active window. Maybe this one could ask for a confirmation at the device, to make an accident less likely. And, still, we do close windows by accident with a mouse, so nothing new there.
I just saw that you discarded the share plugin to print because there isn’t any API to print from command line.
But there is : http://www.cups.org/documentation.php/options.html
I haven’t tested it, but depending on cups doesn’t seem stupid, as it’s the default printing system.
Anyway, that was just to let you know :)
I like this!!! THX)))
When new release?
I don’t know how to use your TODO page, I supose it’s private, maybe it would be useful to create a public forum to organize ideas
I’ve seen you have a task to filter google notifications, I think it would be nice if you can add custom filters based on programs running on your PC. For example, I use Telegram messenger, wich has a desktop client called Sigram that I use. Every time I receive a message, it pops two notifications, one from kde connect saying I received a message from Telegram, and another one from my desktop client. My idea is to have a filter that hides Telegram notifications when Sigram is running (so it can still notify Telegram messages if I forget to run Sigram)
Also, I have noticed that if I receive a call my amarok pauses, but it doesn’t play back again when I hang the phone :/
Btw, awesome job! :D
It would be very nice to have entries for special keys in the touchpad menu eg. ESC, CTRL, ALT, META or combinations like CTRL-ALT-ENTF.
There could be some predefined keys as well as the possibility to add special sequences to that list, including strings.
Personally I am only in need of the ESC key to change full-screen mode of the espn player ;) ((for now I have to use Remotedroid which works quite well)).
Keep on your wonderful work – thx.
First of all awesome app! I really love it!
A easy rule for UFW(https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UFW) would be very useful. I already opened the ports and can’t get it working with UFW enabled.
I love using kde connect. A timestamp for notifications from phone to computer would be useful
I like that you can open applications from the phone, such as Amarok or VLC
And the full screen option is added to VLC
I would love to see some ideas for home automation integration, desktop notifications to the phone, desktop terminal on the phone or phone terminal on the desktop, and the ability to run launch scripts from the phone on the desktop.
This app rocks and the potential from all of everyone’s ideas will make a lot of platforms extremely jealous.
I would love to have time for all those ideas, because they have been going around in my head for a while :)
Hi,
I have the idea of creating some king of “presentation laser pointer” with KDE Connect. I think it would be possible to use the Positions Sensors of the Android API to control a “laser pointer” based on the device movements (roll & pitch).
Maybe one could calibrate the pointer initially in a neutral position.
After that the way you tilt your device can “move” the pointer and touching your screen could make the pointer visible on your main presentation screen.
A screen locker/unlocker when the phone is nearby would be awesome (similar to how chromebooks can unlock from a nearby phone). There is a project called blueproximity that does this, but it doesn’t really work fantastic with KDE.
Not sure if it’s already on the list: port the app to Ubuntu Phone/Touch. Now that Ubuntu phone starts to gain some momentum, kdeconnect is one thing i would definitely miss and that would keep me from giving it a try.
Hi,
I have a feature request that I haven’t seen anywhere else.
Notifications are shown just for few seconds before they disappear. Even if they are still available somewhere, they are hidden and get easily unnoticed. There are times in which I receive a notification the exact moment I go away from my PC and by the time I’m back, the notification is no longer visible.
This made me wonder if it would be possible to have an optional counter on the plasmoid so that allows you to easily know when there’s a new notification.
Tasker plugin would be nice.
Voice input support in remote control would be great. Now KDE Connect only sends the first letter recognized by voice input.
Would it be possible to read Whats-app messages on the computer and maybe reply them from there?
This is just for the UI of the android application (I posted it on KDE brainstorm but that’s not the correct thing to do probably). I think a dark UI (even if it’s not the default but it’s just an option) would be useful for people, especially someone with an OLED screen on the smartphone as he could keep the screen on when watching something and using the multimedia control without wasting too much battery.
When sending files from phone to PC, use the normal media picker so that users can choose to use the camera and take a photo or video and have that transfer.
A question: Would it be hard to implement a notification when the phone is fully charged? Something like this:
If battery is charging and reaches 100%, then announce it using KDE notifications system
That would prevent reducing battery life because of unnecessary overcharging.
I would absolutely love for KDE Connect to provide a homescreen widget so that I could control my PC’s media playback from my phone’s homescreen.
This is honestly my favourite Android app- so bloody useful!
The “Find my phone” thingy should really pop up a dialog warning you, that your phone is going to ring even if it is muted. I am just sitting in a library and accidentally clicked the “?” (which by the way is not a good indication of that function imho – means more like “open help”) and my phone began to ring at full volume and did not even mute, when I clicked the standby button. I pulled out the battery as fast as I could – very embarrassing!
Usar los acelerómetros del smartphone para lograr usarlo como mando de juegos; compatibles con la plataforma steam!!
Muchisimas gracias por esta aplicaciont tan util y necesaria. Por favor, hay una cosilla que creo que no funciona del todo bien. Me refiero a cuando envias archivos del mobil al pc o al reves. Si eliges varios archivos se crea un proceso de envio por cada uno de modo que los envia en paralelo. Creo que seria mejor que cada tarea de envio se adjuntara a una cola y se fuera enviando uno a uno. Aunque solo es mi opinion y no tengo mucha idea del tema. Repito, muchisimas gracias por vuestro esfuerzo y dedicacion y que paseis felices fiestas. :)
would be great if we could sync kdewallet to a android kde wallet app for android. I realise this would require a wallet app for android unless you could partner with one of the other opensource apps already out there.
I’m just starting to poke around to figure out how to build this my self, but it’s not really my area of expertise.
I suggest this because KDE wallet is probable the best password store out there for KDE (although still needs a lot more work) but unfortunately there is just no way to share those passwords with other devices, can’t even export kde wallet to a format other password vaults can understand. but it integrates into KDE so much better then every other wallet system out there. It’s a shame.
+1 for the suggestions of the functionality to use the phone as a camera and mic
i would also like to suggest the abilty to use the phone as a wireless speaker as well :3