You know, reading the article would have answered your question, saving your time, my time from (voluntary) responding, and everyone else who reads this comment and subsequently also responds it.
I don't mean to be harsh, but really? There is entire bullet point list on the page, and yes, I didn't include it in my response. Ironic.
> KDE Connect provides various features to integrate your phone and your computer. It allows you to send files to the other device, control its media playback, send remote input, view its notifications and may things more. It is available for (mobile) Linux, Android, FreeBSD, Windows and macOS.[1]
Actually I read your response, then I read the article and still came away confused as to what it does, and I use Linux and KDE as the daily driver for work. So now you’ve wasted my time finding the answer to the question instead of just answering a question likely a lot of people will have. Yes, op could have googled that information themselves. However, the valid criticism of OP is that upon having that question they should have googled the answer and then posted their question with the answer proactively. But “did you even RTFA” is not a helpful meta discussion to have. It’s useful to check the comments first to see whether TFA is even worth reading so having this answered about a more obscure piece of software seems totally valid. And someone did paste the bulleted list of features for Valent itself in this thread too so the rhetoric is just a bit too sanctimonious at chewing out a fellow person without providing value to everyone else reading your comment.
It's a phone app that allows control of your desktop. you can control music, send files, use the camera from your phone to get pictures on the desktop, etc
How does it work? What apps are compatible? How is the connection between devices set up? Wire guard? If not, then what?
How does it control apps and receive notifications?
At first it sounded to me like an alternative X11 thing
I hate it when projects/products only state what you can do (or at least what they envision), and not explaining the actual workings. Especially when data and access gets more and more important.
Same with I think it was postbox.. nice app, but they didn’t tell you that they need full access to your account, store “securely” on their server.. no thank you.
KDE framework has KIO library which provides network-transparent file access (that's why Konqueror works a file manager and a browser simultaneously). IIRC the author of KDE Connect was tinkering over sending notifications to a phone app and found out you can make much more with it.
> How is the connection between devices set up?
The server part uses 1716/UDP for broadcasting it's presence and 1716-1764/TCP to communicate with clients. The client had to be paired with server (like in Bluetooth), the communication is done via TLS, file browsing works over SFTP.
> How does it control apps and receive notifications?
Everything is done via plugins, both sides choose which ones are enabled and some have their own control schemes (i.e. whitelist of apps to sync notifications from phone).
it integrates in the desktop UI (and standard protocols, e.g. D-Bus, the "share as..." feature, etc) & phone UI (and standard protocols, e.g. MPRIS, the Android "share" feature, etc), it's mostly not about apps but about the shell, although some apps have nice additional integrations through extensions, like firefox.
For instance:
- when I copy on my linux desktop I can paste on my phone
- I can share links, files, etc between phone and desktop trivially (through the usual android feature on the phone, and through right-click in my desktop)
- when I have media playing either in my desktop media player or in web browsers I can control the playback from the phone
- I can use my phone as a remote control when I give talks & presentations
- I see my phone notifications on my desktop
etc
It's really the only thing that makes Android remotely tolerable for me.
I am quite the opposite, many projects now just have a wall of text about the technology they use, but completely utred to explain in simple terms what it does. It seems some devs assume that everyone can guess from the tech stack. By all means have a page explaining the technology, but the front page should tell me what I can do with it.
Well you need both.. What does it do and why. And then how. The how needs to be somewhere if it's not something super standard, and even then I think it's best to explain. Because things are simply not obvious.
It is a way for your phone to interface with your computer, allowing bidirectional notifications, media control, clipboard and file transfer.
It works VERY well. The app itself mostly stays out of the way and things "just work". No noticeable latency even using the remote keyboard functionality.
I don't mean to be harsh, but really? There is entire bullet point list on the page, and yes, I didn't include it in my response. Ironic.