I’ve been struggling with something that sounds simple but is surprisingly annoying:
capturing content quickly across devices in a self-hosted environment.
On Android there’s share, on iOS shortcuts, on desktop copy/paste… but everything feels fragmented.
I often end up losing things or postponing them just because capturing isn’t frictionless.
Curious how others handle this.
I dunno if it would help, but between my phone and my computers (and one of my local servers) I use KDE Connect. Read about whatever I’m working on with the phone, share > kde > device, boom the clipboard is filled with whatever, or the link is automatically opened. Then proceed with the thing on my computer. Need to think or read about something but need to step away from the computer? Just copy it on the desktop, and again the clipboard is filled on the phone.
And of course sharing tabs on Firefox/derivatives.
Yeah KDE Connect is great for device-to-device flow, I’ve used it too.
What I always found tricky is that it works really well once you’re already “in the flow”, but not so much as a quick capture entry point.
Like, it helps moving things around — but not necessarily deciding to capture something instantly in the first place.
That’s where I always felt something was missing.
I haven’t seen anyone mention Readeck. I use Readeck for those ‘read it later’ articles, etc. It has a Firefox extension. I’ve found it works very well. You can highlight a paragraph of an article, and save that to Readeck as well. In fact, when I consult with AI, I’ll highlight the entire page and shoot it to my Readeck instance, otherwise it will just link the AI platform and not the content.
If it’s text, I move everything to obsidian which is installed on multiple devices and uses my self hosted minio server to sync.
If it’s links, most go into my linkding setup. If they’re read later, to Instapaper.
Files, I tend to use minio directly to drag and drop. If it’s genuinely use and throw, like moving memes, I use Tailscale Drop (or Send, or whatever it’s called) to move between devices.
Yeah that makes sense — I ended up with similar setups at some point.
What always bothered me a bit is exactly that fragmentation: different tools depending on what you’re capturing and from where.
It works, but it feels like you’re constantly switching “mode” depending on context.
I keep wondering if capturing should really depend on the destination at all, or if it should be something more uniform.
The problem with that to me at least, is that there’s no one uniform way to capture things. Notes and videos and images and files all need different contexts and views. I hate Pocket and similar services for this reason - it feels too “media” friendly, too focused on videos and links and PDF files. When most of my read later is text - articles and such.
Yeah — that’s exactly the feeling I kept running into.
At some point I stopped trying to adapt existing tools and ended up building something around this idea of “uniform capture”.
It’s basically a very minimal layer where you can send anything (text, links, quick notes, etc.) from any device in one step — without worrying about where it goes or how it’s structured.
Still early, but it’s been working surprisingly well for me in daily use.
Tell me more!
Sure 🙂
What I ended up building is basically a very minimal “capture layer”.
The idea is simple: no matter where you are (phone, browser, desktop), capturing something should always be the same action.
In practice:
- Android → share
- iOS → shortcut
- browser → bookmarklet
- desktop → just paste
Everything goes into the same place instantly, without deciding upfront what it is or where it belongs.
No tags, no structure, no “mode switching”.
Just capture first, decide later (or never).
I built it mainly because I was tired of stitching together different tools depending on context.
If you want to take a look: https://github.com/oldany/dropmind
That looks cool! And… I think we can extend it to iOS and android apps. The benefit being drag and drop simplicity and sharing sheet access, instead of shortcuts, which have always felt wonky to me.
I’ll play with it first. Thanks for the link!
Yeah I get what you mean 🙂
Shortcuts work (that’s what I’m using on iOS right now), but they can feel a bit “indirect” compared to something more native like share sheets or drag & drop.
Curious to hear how it feels once you try it — especially what feels frictionless vs what doesn’t.
I have linkwarden set up for this.
On Android I share to the linkwarden app to save, on pc i use the Firefox addon.
Sure it’s fragmented but I’m already used to doing things different between mobile and pc anyways.
I think a second brain service, like maybe Trilium that you can host, could be a solution. Capture, tag, link, analyse, find back
Yeah I tried going the “second brain” route too (Trilium, Obsidian, etc.)
What I kept running into is that they’re great once something is already in the system — but capturing still feels like a separate step where you have to think about where it belongs.
I started wondering if capturing should be completely independent from organization, and almost “context-free”.
More like a thin layer you can hit instantly from anywhere, without deciding anything upfront.
