I often write about apps that make the leap from Windows or Mac to Linux, but it’s much rarer than I get to write about things the other way around.
But today I do as KDE Connect, the open-source smartphone-to-desktop bridge that enables a crop of handy integrations, is now available on macOS.
Sure, macOS sports “continuity” integrations with iOS devices, letting iPhone owners benefit from some nifty sync smarts. But there’s precious little out there for Mac users who use Android smartphones.
And that something that this port of the KDE Connect app and indicator , strange though it may seem, goes some way to addressing.
Which is why KDE Connect for mac could become a pretty big deal.
Currently, the KDE Connect mac port supports the following features:
- Run commands on macOS from Android
- Send and receive SMS text messages
- See phone battery level on the desktop
- Ring your phone to help find it
- Send files from mac to Android
- Send files from Android to macOS
- Clipboard sync (both ways)
- See Android notifications on macOS
- Control macOS volume from Android
You can also use your Android phone’s touchscreen as a temporary trackpad and your Android phone’s keyboard to enter text. These features do require explicit permission to function. You’ll see an accessibility prompt appear on your macOS device when enabling them.
The rest of KDE Connect’s plethora of plugins are either untested or unlikely to work — for now, anyhow.
You can learn more about the KDE Connect macOS project, developed as part of Google Summer of Code 2019, by reading Weixuan Xiao’s blog.
Download KDE Connect for Mac
You can download KDE Connect for mac today but you’ll have to be content to tussle with a nightly build that’s a bit buggy and a bit broken.
It’s available in the form of a prepackaged .dmg, but do note that this pre-compiled build requires macOS 10.14 (Mojave) or later:-
To use KDE Connect on macOS 10.12 or 10.13 you’ll need to compile a build by hand. Not impossible, but a bit involved.
You’ll also need to install the KDE Connect Android app (available on the Play Store as well as on F-Droid) on the phone you wish to use with this, regardless of how you install it.
A stable (and signed) release of KDE Connect for mac is planned for August.
KDE Connect, Qt and other libraries are open source and can be used on many platforms. The “work” on this mac port is not at the expense of Linux development, which remains active.
Don’t forget that you can take FULL advantage of KDE Connect on Ubuntu by using the awesomee GSConnect extension for GNOME Shell.