I just had to email me a file I got sent to my phone and I feel unable to accept this as the better solution.
What you do guys use for inter-device communication?
Localsend
- syncthing (file synchronization)
- kdeconnect (file transfers, clipboard sharing, presentation remote)
- deskflow (keyboard and mouse sharing)
- warpinator (one off file sharing)
- rsync / scp (one off file copies / backups)
Everyone else mentioned most of what I would suggest.
One is missing for your original problem. Localsend. Think airdrop but cross platform. Super useful if you have a mix of devices (iOS, android, windows, etc…)
magic wormhole
Nextcloud
SSH or a USB stick that has USB 3 on one end and USB C on the other
For files I use syncthing (also for music/photos/notes/etc… syncing files is IMHO the way to go wherever applicable).
For sending links to my PC (eg. articles linked from podcasts’ notes) I used to rely on firefox sync, but I’m starting to distance myself from Mozilla so I am gonna experiment with wallabang.
For sending small notes to myself (stuff that I want to sort or act upon when I get to my PC), I’m using signal’s “note to self” but I’m investigating alternatives because signal doesn’t mark such messages as unread and so sometimes I forget I’ve sent some.
Yep. For folders where I want access quick access to everything in the folder, SyncThing is best.
Starting to dabble with KDE Connect for one-off file transfers where SyncThing is overkill
where SyncThing is overkill
I just have a dedicated shared folder between my phone and desktop and drop oneoff stuff there (it’s also easier to script this way)
I use a mix of few things
- kapus.app for starters where a device is completely new and I need to pass some secrets like login to Nextcloud to get keepass or something
- Nextcloud - documents that I rarely access. Some bigger files
- syncthing - for often access files like main keepass. Home server acts as a de-facto hub.
- quick share for an airdrop replacement
- if quick share is not working for some reason I also have a private channel on matrix where I can share some stuff quickly as-hoc
Not mentioned but warpinator
Thumb drive.
SFTP, Caddy WebDAV
Samba drive + vpn tunnel. If I’m working on my PC and want to do something with my phone: plainapp
I really like microbin to copy paste files around.
I use ghost commander on my phone to access my NAS on my home network.
Oh, I remember a guy I met on a lanparty using it for everything
Mostly nextcloud if it’s between my own devices.
For getting a file to someone else I had good luck with sharry. https://github.com/eikek/sharry








