Linux Link

Your Android phone and your Linux PC, finally acting like they know each other.

Why this exists I kept watching Apple users copy something on their Mac and paste it on their iPhone like it was nothing, and I wanted that on my own setup — a Linux PC and an Android phone. KDE Connect gets partway there, but I wanted something that just works: you pair once, and from then on the phone connects by itself every time the PC turns on. No opening an app, no clicking "refresh", no cloud account in the middle.

So I built Linux Link. Everything stays on your local network, everything is end-to-end encrypted, and there is no server anywhere — your devices talk directly to each other, or not at all.

What it does Once paired, without you touching anything:

Your phone's notifications show up on your desktop, with a Reply button for messages (WhatsApp, SMS, Telegram…). Dismiss on one side, gone on the other. The clipboard is shared both ways. Copy on the PC, paste on the phone two seconds later. The other direction uses Shizuku for a fully automatic experience (Android blocks background clipboard reading otherwise — their rule, not mine). Files fly both ways, AirDrop-style: right-click → "Send to phone" on the PC, Share → Linux Link on the phone. Streamed, encrypted, checksummed. A LinuxLink folder syncs in both directions, plus your standard folders (Downloads, Documents, Pictures) if you want. Handoff: send the page you're reading from one device and it opens on the other. Media and volume: control the PC's player from a media bubble on your phone, use the physical volume keys, see the track title. Works the other way too. Your tablet becomes a true second monitor — extension, not mirroring, like Apple's Sidecar. The PC grows a real extra display that shows up in your display settings; drag windows onto it, the cursor flows across the edge, and the tablet's touch, pen (with pressure) and any attached keyboard act on the PC. H.264 over the same encrypted link, reconnects by itself. Works over Wi-Fi, or over USB via Android's USB tethering. Your phone becomes a webcam, a microphone or a speaker. The mic and the speaker appear in your PC's sound settings as ordinary devices — "Linux Link" as an input, "Phone (Linux Link)" as an output — so you pick them exactly where you'd pick a headset, in the volume applet or in Zoom/Meet/OBS. Flip the toggle in the app and the phone keeps working with its screen off. Proximity lock: walk away with your phone and the PC locks; come back and it unlocks. Battery level of the phone, visible from the PC's tray icon. Several phones at once, each recognized by its certificate.