Connect Your Android Phone To Linux with KDE Connect

Objective

Install and configure KDE Connect on Linux and Android.

Distributions

This will work on nearly all Linux distributions.

Requirements

A working Linux install with Plasma and root privileges. Also, an Android device.

Difficulty

Easy

Conventions

  • # – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of sudo command
  • $ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user

Introduction

KDE Connect is easily the best tool for sharing between Android and Linux. It allows you to see your phone’s notifications and text messages from the Linux desktop. It also lets you reply to those texts through your phone without picking it up or unlocking it.

KDE Connect does more than that, though. You can share files between devices and send links from your phone to your desktop web browser. It has some multimedia controls and even the ability to use your phone’s touchscreen as a trackpad. All said, KDE Connect is pretty awesome.

This guide is going to focus on KDE Connect on Plasma, but you can actually set it up on any Linux desktop environment with the right integration.

Install KDE Connect On Linux

The package for KDE Connect is almost universally called kdeconnect or kde-connect. It’s available for just about every Linux distribution that packages Plasma. The following linux command is for Debian/Ubuntu systems, but you can adapt it to your distribution of choice.

$ sudo apt install kdeconnect

Install KDE Connect On Android

Search KDE Connect on F-Droid

KDE Connect is free and open source software, so it’s available in both the Play Store and F-Droid. This guide is going to follow F-Droid, but the process is similar either way.

KDE Connect installed on F-Droid

Open F-Droid, and search for “KDE Connect.” It’ll be the first result you see. Tap on it, and tap the “Install” button. After the app finishes installing, you can run it.

Connect Your Phone To Your Computer

You can pair your phone and computer from either device. It’s probably better to go through the computer, though. It’s a good indication that everything’s going well if you see the name of your computer/user on your phone when you open the app.

KDE Connect on Plasma settings

Click on the system settings in Plasma, and find KDE Connect. The window should populate with information about KDE Connect, including the devices that it discovered. If there are no devices, click on the “Refresh” button. Once you see your device, click on it.

KDE Connect device settings

The box to the far right will populate with the available functionality from your device. Check any of the boxes that you want to enable. Most will be enabled by default, but make sure you have everything that you want. When everything is set, click the button to request pairing.

KDE Connect computer discovered on Android

The computer will send a request to your phone, and it will display a notification of that request. You just need to accept. Once you do, you’ll be taken to the KDE Connect screen that displays the controls available to your device. They are officially connected and will connect whenever they’re both available on the same network.

KDE Connect controls on Android

Closing Thoughts

That’s it! Your phone is now connected with your Linux desktop, and you’ll never need to pick up your phone to look at a text message again. KDE Connect is super easy to use, and transferring information between the devices is all fully integrated.



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