I just had to email me a file I got sent to my phone and I feel unable to accept this as the better solution.
What you do guys use for inter-device communication?
Localsend
Syncthing for everything: file transfers, backing up phone photos, synced obsidian vaults, etc.
For phone <-> PC I use localsend. If I do PC to PC, possibly even large amounts of files or large files in general I put them on a network drive specifically intended for that purpose
Copyparty. Or any other web file server.
KDE Connect and SyncThing
I use ghost commander on my phone to access my NAS on my home network.
Oh, I remember a guy I met on a lanparty using it for everything
KDE Connect
PC to phone:
- USB cable
- KDE Connect
- Nextcloud
- Syncthing
PC to PC:
- USB drive
- SFTP
- SSH
- Nextcloud
- Syncthing
Phone to PC:
- USB cable
- KDE Connect
- Nextcloud
- Syncthing
KDE Connect can do all three of these.
I’m aware, but some devices I use regularly like an iPhone, work computer, etc, are limited in their capacity to run it.
LocalSend on both devices is something I’ve used
I also like LocalSend. Not quite as automagical as airdrop but it’s cross platform
I would argue it being cross-platform is magical.
There also copyparty. I don’t personally used it but their release video is fun AF.
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:
Fewer Letters More Letters NAS Network-Attached Storage SMB Server Message Block protocol for file and printer sharing; Windows-native SSH Secure Shell for remote terminal access
3 acronyms in this thread; the most compressed thread commented on today has 4 acronyms.
[Thread #1 for this comm, first seen 5th Jun 2026, 07:30] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]
good bot
Nextcloud
Everyone else mentioned most of what I would suggest.
One is missing for your original problem. Localsend. Think airdrop but cross platform. Super useful if you have a mix of devices (iOS, android, windows, etc…)
I know it’s not a dedicated (or that good of a) solution but I just upload stuff to a private room on my Matrix server.
For sending files between a phone and a PC, I use KDE Connect.
For sending files between PCs, I use SSH.
Both are really simple and lightweight tools that normally come preinstalled, and you can use them with no configuration.
Adding to this, there’s a gnome extension so you can use KDE connect without KDE DE.
You can use KDE Connect itself without KDE.
But GSConnect shows up in the equivalent of your task bar
So does KDE Connect. It’s a standalone program that happens to also be integrated into the KDE DE.
No, not on GNOME Desktops, that’s the reason you need to install GSConnect on GNOME. If you install just KDE Connect on a GNOME system, you will not have it integrated.
Samba drive + vpn tunnel. If I’m working on my PC and want to do something with my phone: plainapp
