Mastodawn

Alas Poor Erinaceus

Alternative to KDE-Connect?

https://lemmy.ml/post/38562005

Alternative to KDE-Connect? - Lemmy

Basically, I’d like to be able to get SMS messages from my android phone sent to my Linux laptop, primarily for getting 2FA codes, since that’s the way pretty much every business-type site out there insists on doing it. Anything KDE-related, it seems to me, makes you download a lot of other software that you don’t really need, and so I’d like to go another route if possible (not dissing KDE, it’s just not for me!). KDE-Connect’s AlternativeTo [https://alternativeto.net/software/kde-connect/?license=opensource&platform=android%2Clinux&p=2] page lists a lot of alternatives that aren’t really alternatives, and many seem to have been discontinued. One of them, Sefirah [https://github.com/shrimqy/Sefirah], has a lot of .dll files that come with it, which I believe are only for Microsoft, and so that doesn’t really inspire a lot of confidence. Anyway, thanks in advance for any suggestions. (also, not using GNOME desktop or ZorinOS, so those options unfortunately won’t work). THE VERDICT: KDE Connect is very clunky, but passable . . . I guess. I dimly remember trying this many years ago, and it doesn’t seem to have improved much, if at all. Kind of seems like the devs haven’t really given it much love as of late, which is too bad. Ok for now, but I’ll be looking for a replacement.

Alas Poor Erinaceus Nov 5

I find the KDE Connect display to be a bit clunky, but if you’re on Cinnamon there are two applets which help to smooth out the experience a bit.

Alas Poor Erinaceus Nov 6

Just saw this, Android 2 Linux Notifications on F-Droid, anyone tried it yet? The question for my purposes, of course, will be whether or not it will show the content of the notifications, which I’ll need for 2FA codes. Might just give it a try . . .

Android 2 Linux Notifications | F-Droid - Free and Open Source Android App Repository

A way to display Android phone notifications on Linux

Cat_Daddy [any, any]Nov 5

I know this doesn’t answer your question, but the days of separating KDE and Gnome software are gone. You can run whatever on pretty much any desktop. So if you find a Gnome-specific application that does what you need, just run it. The megabytes of dependencies it will bring in aren’t that big of a deal nowadays, considering we have terabyte-scale hard drives now.

Alas Poor Erinaceus Nov 5

But isn’t GS Connect just for GNOME? I’m using Cinnamon here.

Cat_Daddy [any, any]Nov 5

That’s a good question; I haven’t used it. It may be tightly coupled to the desktop, but I don’t know. Try it? ¯\ˍ(ツ)ˍ/¯

DrDystopia Nov 5

GS Connect hooks into the official GNOME extension API’s and looks very nice and integrated. AFAIK it’s a GNOME-exclusive extension. KDE Connect looks ugly in comparison, not to mention how ugly KDE Connect looks without any comparison.

Who cares what it looks like as long as it works? They want to get 2fa sms in their desktop, I highly doubt “pretty” is high on the requirements…

DrDystopia Nov 5

Anybody interested in the differences between GS Connect and KDE Connect would care, you absolute imbecile. You doubt that pretty is high on the requirements? Whose requirements? OP or the OTHER person I replied to? Are you too dense and outright STUPID to understand context? Reply-to?

Do you enter a comment section and think every single effing reply is to the OP? Are you sitting there right now, questioning yourself if this very comment is directed at OP as a reply to his search for alternatives or maybe, just maybe it’s directed at the person I replied to?

irelephant [he/him]Nov 12

Unless I am misremembering, it was a gnome extension, so it wouldnt work on other desktops.

Alas Poor Erinaceus Nov 5

The megabytes of dependencies it will bring in aren’t that big of a deal nowadays, considering we have terabyte-scale hard drives now.

True, true. However:

The following NEW packages will be installed: kactivities-bin kactivitymanagerd kdeconnect kded5 keditbookmarks kio kirigami-addons-data kpackagelauncherqml kpackagetool5 kpeople-vcard kwayland-data libdbusmenu-qt5-2 libfakekey0 libhfstospell11 libkf5activities5 libkf5archive-data libkf5archive5 libkf5auth5 libkf5bookmarks-data libkf5bookmarks5 libkf5calendarevents5 libkf5codecs-data libkf5codecs5 libkf5completion-data libkf5completion5 libkf5configwidgets-data libkf5configwidgets5 libkf5contacts-data libkf5contacts5 libkf5declarative-data libkf5declarative5 libkf5doctools5 libkf5globalaccel-bin libkf5globalaccel-data libkf5globalaccel5 libkf5globalaccelprivate5 libkf5guiaddons-bin libkf5guiaddons-data libkf5guiaddons5 libkf5i18nlocaledata5 libkf5iconthemes-bin libkf5iconthemes-data libkf5iconthemes5 libkf5itemviews-data libkf5itemviews5 libkf5jobwidgets-data libkf5jobwidgets5 libkf5kcmutils-data libkf5kcmutils5 libkf5kcmutilscore5 libkf5kiofilewidgets5 libkf5kiontlm5 libkf5kiowidgets5 libkf5kirigami2-5 libkf5modemmanagerqt6 libkf5notifications-data libkf5notifications5 libkf5package-data libkf5package5 libkf5parts-data libkf5parts-plugins libkf5parts5 libkf5people-data libkf5people5 libkf5peoplebackend5 libkf5peoplewidgets5 libkf5plasma5 libkf5plasmaquick5 libkf5pulseaudioqt3 libkf5quickaddons5 libkf5solid5 libkf5solid5-data libkf5sonnet5-data libkf5sonnetcore5 libkf5sonnetui5 libkf5textwidgets-data libkf5textwidgets5 libkf5wallet-bin libkf5wallet-data libkf5wallet5 libkf5waylandclient5 libkf5widgetsaddons-data libkf5widgetsaddons5 libkf5xmlgui-bin libkf5xmlgui-data libkf5xmlgui5 libkwalletbackend5-5 libqca-qt5-2 libqca-qt5-2-plugins libqt5multimediaquick5 libqt5quickparticles5 libqt5quickwidgets5 libqt5texttospeech5 libqt5waylandclient5 libvoikko1 libxcb-composite0 libxcb-record0 plasma-framework qml-module-org-kde-kconfig qml-module-org-kde-kirigami-addons-labs-mobileform qml-module-org-kde-kirigami2 qml-module-org-kde-kquickcontrols qml-module-org-kde-kquickcontrolsaddons qml-module-org-kde-people qml-module-qtmultimedia qml-module-qtquick-particles2 qtspeech5-speechd-plugin sonnet-plugins sshfs 0 upgraded, 109 newly installed, 0 to remove and 2 not upgraded. Need to get 19.0 MB of archives. After this operation, 87.9 MB of additional disk space will be used.

But, I would say you are correct, 87.9 MB isn’t really all that much space in the greater scheme of things. Hopefully the version they have in the repos won’t be too out of date. Maybe I will give it a try after all . . .

Some packages recommend other packages that are not really dependencies. Do you use apt? I think it has a –without-recommends flag or something similar.

Alas Poor Erinaceus Nov 6

I do indeed use apt. I think that all of those are bona fide dependencies! I believe there was also a “recommended” part which listed a few other things that I didn’t install. sudo apt autoremove should remove unneeded stuff, I believe, but doing it just now, it didn’t find anything.

OccasionallyFeralya Nov 5

ZAMN

Ŝan • 𐑖ƨɤ Nov 6

Only 87MB of disk space, but GB of RAM to run the services.

I have an 8GB XPS13. Runs beautifully with Herbstluftwm. Under KDE, if you open Firefox the OOM Killer starts shutting down applications.

Bloat does matter.

I used KDE Connect on android & windows and now using it on android & linux without having to download anything else?

I think they do not want all of the dependencies that come with KDE Connect like Qt. A small price to pay for probably the best phone/desktop sharing application available.

Alas Poor Erinaceus Nov 5

Got it up and running. Is there any way to delete SMS messages from the desktop? Even if I delete the messages from my phone they remain on the desktop.

Nednarb44 Nov 5

I haven’t tried deleting straight from the desktop, but I would guess refreshing should update the texts/conversations after deleting on your phone.

Alas Poor Erinaceus Nov 5

Ok, looks like messages deleted on the phone don’t survive a laptop reboot, and undeleted messages do survive a laptop reboot. 👍

DIY KARMA KIT Nov 5

github.com/localsend/localsend

GitHub - localsend/localsend: An open-source cross-platform alternative to AirDrop

An open-source cross-platform alternative to AirDrop - localsend/localsend

GitHub

paper_moon Nov 5

You an option, you can also use some password managers to store 2FA codes, I use KeePassXC to store the 2FA codes and then sync the database across devices with syncthing, but you could use nextcloud or google drive, etc whatever you’d like to sync.

BananaTrifleViolin Nov 5

In terms of KDE dependencies, you’re talking basically about QT. The amount of packages you download shouldnt be too much and likely used for other QT programs which are common.

However there is also GSconnect which is a Gnome extension and uses the KDE connect protocol.

I would say that your concerns regarding the KDE Connect dependencies should be balanced against the good Android and iOS support, and the wide use of KDE connect means it is well maintained, supported and responsive to security updates. These considerations may outweigh the installation of packages that you otherwise won’t be using? It may be better to go mainstream and accept the dependencies than hunt down a lesser supported alternative and deal woth the associated shortcomings.

Anything KDE-related, it seems to me, makes you download a lot of other software that you don’t really need

If you want to avoid KDE dependencies and don’t have Gnome, there are others clients for KDE Connect other than the official kde’s one and GSConnect. So maybe kde connect is still a viable option for you.

On Phosh I was using Valent but there are others like Conecto (discontinued but should work anyway), Konnect (for headless systems, so maybe not for you) and Linux-Remote (check readme for todos).

I’m sure there are more clients I didn’t find with a fast lookup. Hope it helps.

GitHub - andyholmes/valent: Connect, control and sync devices

Connect, control and sync devices. Contribute to andyholmes/valent development by creating an account on GitHub.

GitHub

maybe using scrcpy is an option for you? like /u/[email protected] said, using a password manager for 2fa is great (like actually so so great, and easier to back up/not lose access)–but also, a lot of services only use sms… in that case KDE-Connect is sorta the best.

another option for sms 2fa is google messages–but there are privacy concerns there for sure. I really wish there was something selfhosted/open source that was more light weight and similar to messages.google.com.

GitHub - Genymobile/scrcpy: Display and control your Android device

Display and control your Android device. Contribute to Genymobile/scrcpy development by creating an account on GitHub.

GitHub

jlow (he / him)Nov 5

Esp for 2FA getting notifications from phone to desktop (with KDE Connect in my case) is almost useless since most of the 2FA services seem to tag the SMS with a “sensitive” tag or something, because for the last few month I’ve been getting the notification all right but it’s not showing me the 2FA.

Alas Poor Erinaceus Nov 5

userbase.kde.org/KDEConnect#Sensitive_Notificatio…

KDEConnect - KDE UserBase Wiki

cenzorrll Nov 5

Anything KDE-related, it seems to me, makes you download a lot of other software that you don't really need, and so I'd like to go another route if possible (not dissing KDE, it's just not for me!).

Are you sure these aren't just dependencies? That's the way of linux, do one thing, do it well. Since KDE uses qt, you likely need to install the libraries and a few other packages it might rely on.

If it really is a bunch of stuff you don't need, make sure you have "install recommended" disabled in whatever package manager you've got. I learned that the hard way when I installed texmaker and it tried to install 10GB of packages.

If what you want is an alternative for the SMS on Desktop feature, I’m surprised no one has mentioned https://messages.google.com/web

also surprising that it is now mentioned in an open source community.

Valent is a (nightly) Flatpak that implements the KDE Connect protocol.

Valent

Connect, control and sync devices.

Here’s a ton as listed on the brilliant site AlternativeTo.net:

https://alternativeto.net/software/kde-connect/

Best KDE Connect Alternatives: Top Mobile Remote Control Tools in 2025

The best KDE Connect alternatives are LocalSend, scrcpy and GSConnect. Our crowd-sourced lists contains more than 50 apps similar to KDE Connect for Android, Windows, Mac, Linux and more.

AlternativeTo

gabelstapler Nov 6

There is GSconnect, it’s the gnome version of KDE Connect. Haven’t tried it, though.

BigDaddyRAAB Nov 6

It is just a wrapper around KDE connect as a gnome shell plugin

shadowtofu Nov 6

That is not correct, gsconnect has no dependency on KDE Connect, it is an independent implementation of the same protocol, not a wrapper