KDE Connect integration for mobile phones connection

[jrepin]

Please provide KDE Connect[kdeconnect.kde.org] by default in the desktop mode of Steam Deck. It is one of the most incredible apps to connect/integrate a device via your mobile phone. It would also be cool to integrate some of the features of KDE Connect into the gaming mode UI.

[Senseal]

would be great to get screenshots off the Storage and directly to a phone

[Tori]

+1

[Castlemark]

I can do nothing but agree, kde connect is a game changer. Having it on desktop mode would be great, but having it integrated into the steam OS UI would be even better. Besides receiving notifications and the like, you could use the kde connect phone app to control the steam deck with its remote input feature.

[jrepin]

One more thing I forgot to mention about in original post: KDE Connect is not only great for connection with mobile phones. Actually it is also useful for connection between two PCs, if both have KDE Connect installed. And this would be one way to make it easier for file transfer between two PCs, for example.

[beach89]

+1. Gaming mode integration would be amazing, but just adding the flatpak to the Discover store for now would be nice.

[AquaDuck]

At the very least they should include KDE apps flatpak repo (they have their own)
Their repo URL (add it in Discover settings): https://distribute.kde.org/kdeapps.flatpakrepo

KDE Connect is included in that repo (as is Kate, etc.). Can't use it in gamemode though, unfortunately.

[jrepin]

If I remeber correctly the Flatpak version of KDE Connect would not be enough even for desktop mode, since Flatpak does not support/allow some specific system resources access KDE Connect requires to be fully functional. So it would need to be provided in the base image as normal package.

Thanks for that Flatpak repo link. I'll try it out and see how it goes. And yeah I agree it would be nice if it was included by default, even if disabled by default.

[flusher998]

Originally posted by jrepin:

If I remeber correctly the Flatpak version of KDE Connect would not be enough even for desktop mode, since Flatpak does not support/allow some specific system resources access KDE Connect requires to be fully functional. So it would need to be provided in the base image as normal package.

Thanks for that Flatpak repo link. I'll try it out and see how it goes. And yeah I agree it would be nice if it was included by default, even if disabled by default.

it has to work out of box, but in case, something does not - use flatseal, the flatpak permission manager

[Trollwut]

Originally posted by Wenhop:

At the very least they should include KDE apps flatpak repo (they have their own)
Their repo URL (add it in Discover settings): https://distribute.kde.org/kdeapps.flatpakrepo

KDE Connect is included in that repo (as is Kate, etc.). Can't use it in gamemode though, unfortunately.

thanks for that reminder, nice!

I also would love to have it integrated into game mode.

[jrepin]

I tried the Flatpak version available and unfortunately a lot of the features, especially the most interesting ones like sending files, do not work out of the box. And I believe that it is very inconvenient to have to use Flatseal in addition to installing this to get something working, so yeah I sure hope this gets properly integrated into base Steam OS image at least, for a start so even users who are not so technical as us can benefit from the awesome features available by KDE Connect.

BTW, there is also an issue about this open on Valve's SteamOS Github: #749 SteamOS 3.0 please include KDE Connect[github.com]

[sigg]

+1. Integration into Gamemode would also be awesome. Something like in-game Steam notification popups when you get a call or text.

[MrSandman]

+1

[Yeti]

+1

[Autoreiv]

+1 for me

[nick.]

+1

This would be a massive QoL improvement for the work that I do (often sending release APKs to my phone). I already got a Flutter development environment with Android Virtual Devices working on the Deck (entirely in the user space). Being able to just take the Deck with me on trips (in lieu of a work laptop) and just send everything back and forth wirelessly would make my life so much easier.

Also, receiving phone notifications and having my Deck's clipboard synced to my phone's clipboard would save a lot of time too. Even as a casual user there have already been numerous times where I've looked up mods on my phone and went to paste the URL in my web browser on the Deck only to realize Oh... that's right. My phone isn't synced with this KDE Plasma setup, forcing me to scour search engines for the mod page again.