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?
I either use KDE Connect or Pairdrop depending on which devices I am sharing befween
Localsend
Syncthing for everything: file transfers, backing up phone photos, synced obsidian vaults, etc.
KDE Connect
LocalSend on both devices is something I’ve used
I also like LocalSend. Not quite as automagical as airdrop but it’s cross platform
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
Copyparty. Or any other web file server.
Nextcloud
On the same network with device discovery localsend can be a good alternative.
It works on most devices, even IOS IIRC
Oh, its on F–droid!
Yes and basically everywhere else you need it
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…)
- syncthing (file synchronization)
- kdeconnect (file transfers, clipboard sharing, presentation remote)
- deskflow (keyboard and mouse sharing)
- warpinator (one off file sharing)
- rsync / scp (one off file copies / backups)
There’s PairDrop, you can self host it but iirc it transfer via webrtc so as long as the devices ‘see’ one another there’s no mitm.
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
[Thread #1 for this comm, first seen 5th Jun 2026, 07:30] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]
good bot
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
