I’ve been struggling with something that sounds simple but is surprisingly annoying:
capturing content quickly across devices in a self-hosted environment.
On Android there’s share, on iOS shortcuts, on desktop copy/paste… but everything feels fragmented.
I often end up losing things or postponing them just because capturing isn’t frictionless.
Curious how others handle this.
I dunno if it would help, but between my phone and my computers (and one of my local servers) I use KDE Connect. Read about whatever I’m working on with the phone, share > kde > device, boom the clipboard is filled with whatever, or the link is automatically opened. Then proceed with the thing on my computer. Need to think or read about something but need to step away from the computer? Just copy it on the desktop, and again the clipboard is filled on the phone.
And of course sharing tabs on Firefox/derivatives.
Yeah KDE Connect is great for device-to-device flow, I’ve used it too.
What I always found tricky is that it works really well once you’re already “in the flow”, but not so much as a quick capture entry point.
Like, it helps moving things around — but not necessarily deciding to capture something instantly in the first place.
That’s where I always felt something was missing.
I haven’t seen anyone mention Readeck. I use Readeck for those ‘read it later’ articles, etc. It has a Firefox extension. I’ve found it works very well. You can highlight a paragraph of an article, and save that to Readeck as well. In fact, when I consult with AI, I’ll highlight the entire page and shoot it to my Readeck instance, otherwise it will just link the AI platform and not the content.
I use silverbullet for that. Its like Obsidian but completely online/in browser. Also very much expendable with plugins and scripts
Only thing missing is file sharing.
I think a second brain service, like maybe Trilium that you can host, could be a solution. Capture, tag, link, analyse, find back
Yeah I tried going the “second brain” route too (Trilium, Obsidian, etc.)
What I kept running into is that they’re great once something is already in the system — but capturing still feels like a separate step where you have to think about where it belongs.
I started wondering if capturing should be completely independent from organization, and almost “context-free”.
More like a thin layer you can hit instantly from anywhere, without deciding anything upfront.
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Lowest common denominator: Plaintext / Markdown files?
They’ll work with Logseq, web browsers, notepad, your phone… and maybe sync it all via syncthing?
That’s what I use.
I also write up my system notes in Logseq with the intention that I’ll just sync in my ansible files too… one day…
I have started using nextcloud talks
note to self, your chat app of choice will have something similarYeah I tried similar approaches too (notes to self, chat apps etc.)
They kind of work, but I always felt they weren’t really designed for this use case — more like a workaround.
What I was missing was something more “frictionless”, where capturing is basically instant and doesn’t depend on context.
what sort of stuff are you looking to capture? images, text, code, thoughts?
Pretty much everything 😄
- links from browser
- selected text
- quick notes / thoughts
- sometimes even just a sentence I don’t want to lose
The problem (for me) wasn’t what to capture, but how fast and from where.
I tried things like Linkwarden too — great tool, but still feels tied to specific entry points (browser extension, app, etc.).
What I kept missing was something more “universal”, where capturing is always one step away regardless of device or context.
I find that just texting myself does the trick for things like this. But that’s how I operate. I’m curious to see how you tackle this puzzle.
Yeah I used the “message to self” approach for a while too — it works surprisingly well 🙂
What I ended up building is basically a very minimal “capture layer”, where no matter the context (share, paste, shortcut, etc.), everything goes into the same place instantly, without deciding upfront what it is or where it belongs.
It’s not really a note-taking tool — more like a universal entry point.
If you’re curious: https://github.com/oldany/dropmind
Self hosted Standard Notes?
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:
Fewer Letters More Letters DNS Domain Name Service/System HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol, the Web IP Internet Protocol TCP Transmission Control Protocol, most often over IP UDP User Datagram Protocol, for real-time communications VPN Virtual Private Network
6 acronyms in this thread; the most compressed thread commented on today has 6 acronyms.
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use a lemmy community that only you can post too?
Yeah that’s actually what I tried at some point too 😄
But I always felt it’s still a workaround — you’re adapting a tool that wasn’t really built for capturing.
The friction is lower, but it’s still there.
I keep thinking there should be something more “native” to this use case, something that sits between devices and apps rather than inside one of them.
