• silverdiamond@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    0·
    3 days ago

    Apart from screen mirroring and sms that everyone has mentioned the proprietary alternative undeniably has more features. I don’t know whether it is phone link or link to windows but one of them has a feature where your phone can be used as a webcam over WiFi. As someone who set up ip webcam on my phone and used obs virtual camera through most of the pandemic’s online classes it’s quite useful and I’d like to see features like that just work and are not relying on mjpeg and proprietary software on the phone end. Their auto hotspot feature i haven’t gotten to work and i think is useless but I’m thankful that i don’t have to turn off kde connect when using samsung dex.

  • BennyHill500@lemmy.ml
    0·
    3 days ago

    It requires you sign in to a Microsoft Account for it to TRY TO work

    ftfy, i wanted to give it a shot one time and it literally didnt work, at all. all of Microsofts cross device features are a hot mess, like how you are supposed to be able to share the clipboard between logged in windows PCs, never could get that working either.

    • refalo@programming.dev
      0·
      4 days ago

      when it works. but it’s so incredibly buggy, especially the desktop apps, and double especially the sms desktop app. holy shite is it terrible, and trying to get support is like trying to report a problem to google

      • MystikIncarnate@lemmy.caEnglish
        0·
        4 days ago

        All I’m going to say to this is…

        You people still use SMS?

        I’ve explicitly told people not to send me text messages. The protocols are old and shit compared to other instant messengers. I’m on Google chat, telegram, signal, discord, slack, teams… Find another app to talk to me with. I generally don’t care which one, but I actively refuse to sign up for or into any Facebook/meta/Zuckerberg properties. If you use something I don’t that isn’t owned by the zuck, I’ll probably sign up so we can keep touch, but for the love of God, not SMS.

        Look, SMS was great when phones didn’t have internet on them. It was a quick and easy way to send updates and chat while away from your cable/DSL/dialup (whatever you had at the time). Now that data is the primary use for a mobile phone plan, just use a more robust IM app.

        I also have about six or seven phone numbers, which I give out to different groups of people for different reasons, plus a phone number on my mobile which nearly nobody knows. All my other lines (all VoIP lines) ring my cellphone number. Texting from my VoIP line is not fun, but it does work. Multimedia messages generally get lost and RCS is just encouraging the use of something that should have been killed off.

        I’m partial to Telegram and signal since they mainly operate by phone numbers, but I can make “voice” and video calls over data rather than having to use my cellphone directly; which allows me to call from my computer, laptop, phone, tablet… Literally any device that can run the program. So if my phone is lost/damaged/stolen/whatever (unavailable for any reason), I can still send messages to you and call if needed.

        If everything is tied to your cellphone number, and that number becomes unavailable for any reason, well… Get fucked I guess. Your SIM stops working, your phone dies/breaks/gets stolen, your provider decides to fuck your account up or charge you a fortune for no good reason and cuts you off, your provider has a major malfunction and stops servicing clients in your area… Literally anything goes wrong with the one system you use and all your SMS bullshit goes away. Stop. Using. SMS.

        • refalo@programming.dev
          0·
          4 days ago

          besides many banks requiring SMS 2FA still, I usually only talk with non-app-using people over e2ee RCS

          • MystikIncarnate@lemmy.caEnglish
            0·
            4 days ago

            The banks are borderline criminally negligent because they exclusively use SMS for 2FA.

            Simply, it is insufficient.

            I get that they want the SMS information on file, and that’s understandable, but give people another option at least, Holy hell. It gives my inner IT secops brain an aneurysm.

    • SFloss (they/them)@lemmy.ml
      0·
      4 days ago

      KDE Connect mounts your phone as a network folder in Dolphin. You could copy multiple files and paste them into a folder in your phone through Dolpin as a workaround.

    • Lad@reddthat.com
      0·
      4 days ago

      That’s my problem with KDE. Probably the one most useful feature it could implement, it doesn’t have.

  • AeroLemming@lemm.eeEnglish
    0·
    5 days ago

    Does KDE connect actually work with SMS on Windows now? Last time I used it, I couldn’t text people, only reply using the notification if they texted me and I happened to click on it quickly enough. Pretty useless.

  • Thirsty Hyena@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    5 days ago

    closed source - true alternative to KDE Connect - false requires you sign in to a Microsoft Account for it to work - true

    • Damage@slrpnk.net
      0·
      5 days ago

      you’ve got to place two spaces at the end of the text before every return if you want a
      new line, otherwise two returns give you a

      new paragraph

    • Unruffled@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      0·
      5 days ago

      The only unique (I think?) thing about phone link is that it enables you to use your Android phone camera as a webcam, which can be handy if you don’t have a quality webcam. I think its only in the beta version though.

      • Russ@bitforged.spaceEnglish
        0·
        4 days ago

        I’m not sure if this is a Pixel feature or if its available across all of Android, but there is an option when you connect over USB to connect your phone as a webcam - but that is of course tethered instead of being wireless.

  • Lightfire228@pawb.social
    0·
    5 days ago

    I wonder if KDE connect could leverage the way Syncthing does device discovery and pairing

    It works across networks, with no configuration