KDE Connect on Windows – Sneak a peak
Updated: September 23, 2019
If you’re in possession of an Android phone, then you might be interested in
KDE Connect. This is an application developed by KDE
folks, which lets you pair your smartphone with your Plasma desktop, and then do all sorts of magic to
and fro. You can control media, check SMS messages, view system information, share files, and more.
I’ve
reviewed this software and found it quite
useful, although support for other mobile systems would be nice. Now, as you can imagine, its very name
implies that it is tied into the KDE (Plasma) desktop environment. Well, not anymore! You can use it
Gnome vis
GSConnect, but that’s still Linux. Well, well, well! There’s also an
experimental build for Windows. And that’s why we’re here. Let’s test this software in Windows.
Installation
If you want to install KDE Connect in Windows, you have two options. You can wait for the Google
Summer of Code 2019 to complete (kind of has but the work never ends), with the explicit aim of
porting KDE
Connect to Windows and macOS, or you can rush ahead and try the experimental nightly build,
straight out of the oven. Indeed, you can find the
build
in the KDE Factory. Grab the executable and install it. Once you complete the installation wizard, KDE
Connect will show up as an icon in your system tray.
Pair your phone
From the system tray, right-click > Configure. This will open the familiar KDE Connect interface.
In the nightly build, the buttons aren’t aligned that nicely – they need some healthy padding and such
– but this is expected from alpha-beta quality software that isn’t still ready for everyday use.
On the phone, launch the KDE Connect app. The desktop wizard should now show the phone, and you can
request pairing. Once this is done, the functionality will (mostly) be there.
Does it work? Well?
Yes and no. The list of available plugins is quite long, but they don’t all work in the experimental
build, plus things can radically change between one nightly and the other. During my testing, I did
encounter some glitches. For example, the SMS applet wouldn’t fully load and show the messages.
On the other hand, file sharing worked smoothly, both ways. On the other
other hand, I was able to control the volume via the media applet but
not actually see which media player was running or what song was being played. Once or twice, KDE
Connect didn’t close properly – the GUI vanished but the background process remained, which I had to
kill manually. I am fully aware that some of the functionality is not there – and that the improvements
are on the way. This is but the state of the nightly build.
Conclusion
KDE Connect is still not quite primetime ready for Windows. There are both visual and functional
glitches, but then it works better than I expected, because I didn’t expect anything, and the nightly
builds are a nice hidden little gem. I am happy that this software is making progress, even if it
supposedly takes away some of the unique, killer features that Linux has, and gives them freely over.
Then again, the lack of Linux desktop dominance wasn’t because of the lack or excess of killer
features, so this is a good thing overall.
I am eagerly waiting to see the final product, and what kind of experience the Windows folks will
have. After all, this may give them a further incentive to try Plasma, and the fact this desktop
environment is making progress both in the mobile space and on the Windows desktop is quite
commendable. For the time being, KDE Connect is still kind of rough beta quality, but all in all, it’s
a cool thing. Stay tuned.