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 page lists a lot of alternatives that aren’t really alternatives, and many seem to have been discontinued. One of them, 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.
You must log in or # to comment.
I used KDE Connect on android & windows and now using it on android & linux without having to download anything else? (just wondering)
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.
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.
I haven’t tried deleting straight from the desktop, but I would guess refreshing should update the texts/conversations after deleting on your phone.
Ok, looks like messages deleted on the phone don’t survive a laptop reboot, and undeleted messages do survive a laptop reboot. 👍
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.
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.
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.
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.
Also an option, you can 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. That way you don’t need your phone at all for this task.
There is GSconnect, it’s the gnome version of KDE Connect. Haven’t tried it, though.
It is just a wrapper around KDE connect as a gnome shell plugin
That is not correct, gsconnect has no dependency on KDE Connect, it is an independent implementation of the same protocol, not a wrapper
Here’s a ton as listed on the brilliant site AlternativeTo.net:
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.
maybe using scrcpy is an option for you? like /u/paper_moon@lemmy.world 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.
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 . . .
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.
