Hi everyone,
I currently use Telegram to send photos, PDFs and text messages between my Android phone and my Debian laptop. It works, but everything goes through a third-party server, and I would like a fully local, privacy-friendly alternative.
What I need: Send photos, PDFs and other files in both directions (phone ↔ laptop) Send short text messages or clipboard content Works locally
Thanks for any advice and experience!
KDE Connect
This one beats any other option mentioned by miles.
LocalSend? https://localsend.org/
Since Syncthing and LocalSend were already mentioned - let’s throw in Warpinator:
- built by the Linux Mint team
- has had an (inofficial) Android client for a while now
- works well (although Syncthing is a lot more powerful and requires fewer clicks once it’s set up)
Onionshare should work. You temporarily (or longer if desired) turn a folder/s into an onion site, which you can use to share between computers, not limited to just your own but also to others you give the key to.
Haven’t tried this between Linux and Android (according to Github this works), but I know from Android to Android Photon works very good.
Since Syncthing and LocalSend are already mentioned.
Transfer is another alternative.
Syncthing
Kongpiler2 says kdeconnect, if you’re using KDE it’s extremely efficient. An extension is also developed for Gnome to employ kdeconnect but my experience with that was marred by connectivity issues. Something to bear in mind.
For files I use localsend to transfer directly between devices on the same network.
