KDE Connect for iPhone

Good news for iPhone users using Linux is revealed by the KDE community. KDE Connect: the famous tool to integrate Android with your Linux desktop now supports iPhone too. For those who haven't heard about KDE Connect, it's a KDE application that lets you seamlessly bridge your Android device with your desktop Linux operating system. Though it was developed by the KDE community, there is an extension for the Gnome desktop environment. Zorin OS has its fork of the Gnome extension and the Android application. Other distribution users can still install KDE Connect if they don't mind installing some additional KDE dependencies. KDE Connect desktop application is also available for Windows and Mac (experimental).

I mainly use KDE connect to share the clipboard between my phone and PC, but it can do more than that.

• Receive your phone notifications on your desktop computer and reply to messages
• Control music playing on your desktop from your phone
• Use your phone as a remote control for your desktop
• Run predefined commands on your PC from connected devices. See the list of example commands for more details.
• Check your phones battery level from the desktop
• Ring your phone to help find it
• Share files and links between devices
• Browse your phone from the desktop
• Control the desktop's volume from the phone

 

 

A demo video released by the KDE community shows:

• How to connect two devices
• The ability to view battery status and device info
• Shared clipboard
• File sharing
• Slideshow control
• Remote input

However still the app is under development and not polished as Android version. For example, as of writing this article, the KDE Connect iOS requires iOS 15 or the latest, but the developer said they are working on backward compatibility by fixing some SwiftUI widgets. It also doesn't support iMessage yet. These issues will be fixed soon according to the developer. Dear iOS users, you can receive your iPhone notifications in Linux very soon and it will be a milestone in integrating the proprietary echo system with the free world.

Use the following link to install the testing version of KDE Connect on your iPhone via TestFlight. You can find more information about the development, at the official GitHub repository.

If you find any bugs while testing this version, please report them at KDE Bugzilla to improve the product.