How to install and use KDEConnect on Ubuntu 16.04LTS

Suppose you are working on your computer and your phone rings. You pick it up and see that there's a spam SMS. You just ignore it. After some time, the phone rings again. You again pick it up only to see another spam SMS. And this goes on, until you choose not get distracted while you are working.

I am sure most of us would have faced scenarios like these at one time or the other. Needless to say, not only such situations result in wastage of time, you sometimes end up ignoring some relevant and important messages as well.

So, is there are solution to this problem? Well, you'll be glad to know that there exist software tools that display your phone's notifications on your computer's desktop, saving you from unwanted and frequent distractions.

In this article, we will discuss one such application - dubbed KDEConnect - that connects your Android or BlackBerry phone to your Linux computer. Please note that we'll be using an Android phone (the Nexus 5 running Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow) and Ubuntu 16.04 LTE to explain the tool's features/usage.


KDEConnect, according to the project's official web page, is a tool that is built with an aim to let all your devices communicate with each other. For example, you can use it to display all your phone's notifications on your computer screen. The tool also lets you use your phone as a remote control for your desktop.

"To achieve this, KDE Connect implements a secure communication protocol over the network, and allows any developer to create plugins on top of it," the project's official webpage says. "Currently there are KDE Connect clients on KDE, Android, and Blackberry, and soon we will support iPhone as well.".

Download, Install, and Configure

Execute the following commands to download and install KDEConnect on your Ubuntu box:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:vikoadi/ppa
sudo apt update
sudo apt install kdeconnect indicator-kdeconnect

Once the above mentioned commands are successful, the next step is to download and install the KDEConnect app on your Android smartphone, something which can be done by heading to the app's Play Store listing page.

After both Android and Ubuntu apps are installed, open the KDE Connect Settings app on your computer.

KDE Connect Icons

When the application opens, you'll see that it automatically detects your Android phone if both your computer and the handset are connected to the same network. For example, in my case, the application was able to detect my Nexus 5 smartphone.

Connect and Sync Device

Now, in the app window, select your Android phone and click the 'Request pair' button

Select your phone

This will result in a notification on your KDEConnect mobile app, asking you to confirm the pairing request.

KDEConnect mobile app

Once you tap the 'Accept' button, your devices will be connected. Here are the UIs of both desktop as well as mobile apps after the devices were connected in my case:

Connect your device

Connect on the Phone

KDEConnect Usage

There are many features that KDEConnect offers. To start with, the tool lets you ping one device from another to check connectivity. For example, you can choose the 'Send ping' option located in the overflow menu of the KDEConnect mobile app to ping your computer.

KDE Connect usage

Ping the phone

Similarly, clicking the 'Send ping' button in the KDE Connect Settings window will send a ping message to your phone. Like the way ping message is displayed, all your other phone notifications, including those from your WhatsApp, SMS, and other applications are also displayed on your computer screen.

Needless to say, ping is a basic feature that KDEConnect offers, but that doesn't mean there aren't any advanced ones. For example, the tool lets you remotely control your mouse and keyboard from the mobile app.

For this, just tap the 'Remote input' option on the mobile app:

Send files with KDEConnect

And on the screen that follows, you'll be able to move your finger to control the mouse pointer on your computer.

Use your phone as touchpad for the PC

Use two/three fingers to scroll a window, and long press to perform a drag-n-drop operation. Right and middle clicks can be sent using the corresponding options present in the overflow menu (see below).

Use two/three fingers to scroll a window

Moving on, tap on the keyboard icon on the top-right, and you'll be able to type on your computer screen using your smartphone's keyboard (I actually wrote this line using my Nexus 5's keyboard)

Remote Control

So that was all about the 'Remote input' feature.

Moving on, KDEConnect also allows you to send files from your phone to your computer, something which can be achieved by tapping the 'Send files' option on your KDEConnect mobile app.

Send file from phone

Once you do that, you'll be asked to choose a file. Thereafter, the file will be immediately sent.

The location where the sent file will be stored on your computer can be accessed by heading to the 'Share and receive' plugin entry in the KDE Connect Settings application on your computer, and clicking the empty button next to the plugin name.

KDEConnect settings

Share and receive folder

Moving on, KDEConnect also offers some interesting features. For example, it can help you find your phone (by making it ring) if it's not in your direct sight - this can be done through the KDE Connect Monitor app.

Other features

As you'd have understood by now, KDEConnect's capability - for the most part - depends on the application plugins that are active. You can take a look at the list of plugins and their descriptions by tapping on the 'Plugin settings' option in the KDEConnect mobile app.

KDEConnect plugins

Plugin Settings

Note: An important point worth mentioning here is that the latest version of KDEConnect (1.0 and up) also allows you to reply SMS directly from notifications - see the announcement from the app's developer here. While it's no doubt an extremely useful feature, sadly we couldn't get it working on our setup. But now that you know it, you can test it out at your end, and in case you succeed, drop in a comment below so that everybody else (including us) can benefit from your knowledge.


As is clearly evident, the tool offers a plethora of features. Aside from being feature-rich, the application is also very easy to download and install (both desktop and mobile clients), and not to mention the ease of use.

The project's official webpage contains a small FAQ section in case you face difficulties at any stage, and of course, you can file a bug report if the situation merits. The team behind KDEConnect have their own website, so you can follow them if you want to keep yourself updated about the tool's progress. And finally, those interested can also contribute to the project as it is open source.

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10 Comment(s)

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By: bob

After downloading everything, apparently successful, when I try to start KDEconnect in Mint 18 it says "cannot connect to KDE Connect DBus services".  my machine says I have DBus available.  what am I missing?

By: Alexander

Charge the fu**ed battery!!!

By: Dieter Kristiansen

I got the same error message "cannot connect to KDE Connect DBus service" on a desktop running mint 18. I have no batteries!!. The pghone battery is 96 percent full So i did not understand Alexanders message!

By: Pito

The vikoadi PPA is not working more, this one is working

By: Joe

What I don't see is a way to send files to my phone.

Is there a way to do that? E.G. I want to send my KeePassx password vault without putting it on Dropbox, etc..

Other than that, really cool app!

By: jsa

Just use Dolphin.  Once paired, your phone shows up in Devices portion of Dolphin, and you can browse it from there.  Its all drag and drop from there on.  Be advised you can not write to all locations on your phone.  It activly protects itself from us silly users. ;-)

By: Bumi

Why, my pc didn't show the notification? When i test it with sending ping from my phone, pc didn't show anything

Anyone can help me?

By: aishen

First thanks because it's really a great app ! I used freeboxsms but for some reason I can't anymore my contact don't appear. I use pushbullet too but it's very limited on the number of sms.

I would like to get the name of the sended sms because if the contact doesn't answer I have to type the name of it (well not very serious), the first letter offers you to choose the contact. It's really the "killer app" !


By: Evi1M4chine

Why is it absolutely impossible to find documentation on the thing though?

I have searched high and low, and there is absolutely no way in hell to find any information on how desktop-to-phone keyboard input is used. There is nothing to click on in the desktop status bar icon, pop-up, plasmoid, k-menu, etc. Nor is there any “help” button or anything anyway.

But hey, with “modern” (read Apple-like, but more depressed) UIs, I’m lucky, if the author still assumed I can actually read (and doesn’t just use icons), ever see any colors (because monocrome minimalism is soo useful! —.—), let alone makes his desktop “app” keyboard-controllable. (Just try how far you get on Plasma5, without constantly having to switch to the “one-finger mitten of the one-armed cripple” [mouse].)

By: Stephan

Hi, kde connect sounds good, but already linux itself can deal with android smartphones directly, like copying files. However I cannot delete files on android, from linux. Is this possible with kde connect? Would be the most important feature for me.


Bye Stephan