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You love your Mac, and you love your Android phone. But getting these two ecosystems to play nice together is often not easy. What if I told you there’s a free, open-source app that can sync notifications between your devices and so much more?
Enter KDE Connect. This clever utility is the missing link for turning your Mac and Android phone into a cohesive team. If you’ve ever looked with envy at the integration between an iPhone and a Mac, or even the way Microsoft’s Phone Link ties Windows and Android together, KDE Connect is the solution.
What Can KDE Connect Do?
KDE Connectis an app designed to bridge the gap between your mobile device and your desktop—and it’s not only about Android and Mac. While the “KDE” name may remind you of Linux, the app is available pretty much everywhere, including on Mac, Windows, Linux, Android, and iPhone.
So, what exactly can it do? Imagine you copy something on your phone, and it’s instantly available to paste on your computer. That’s the shared clipboard feature. Tired of fumbling for your phone every time you get a notification? KDE Connect can mirror your phone’s notifications directly to your desktop, and even let you reply to messages without picking up your phone.
But KDE Connect goes much further than just simple syncing. You can use your phone as a remote control for your computer, whether you’re skipping tracks in your music player, advancing slides in a presentation, or even using it as a virtual touchpad and keyboard. We’ve all misplaced our phone somewhere in our homes. A quick click on your computer can make your phone ring loudly, helping you pinpoint its location.
File sharing becomes much easier, too. No more emailing yourself photos or plugging in USB cables. You can send files to and from your devices wirelessly, and even browse your phone’s file system directly from your computer. All in all, it’s an extremely powerful app. Everything I’ve outlined here is probably only half of what it can do.
Here’s the thing: Almost all of these features mentioned above are nothing new for people who use iPhones with their Mac computers. That’s exactly what makes KDE Connect so indispensable for Android users. It brings a level of cohesion and interoperability that Apple usually reserves for its own products. You don’t need to buy an iPhone to have phone integration with your Mac.
How to Use KDE Connect on Mac & Android
Alright, let’s get KDE Connect up and running. First, go ahead anddownload the appfrom the Play Store on your Android phone. You don’t need to do anything with it yet.
As of June 2025, KDE Connect is only available for Mac via nightly builds. You can download either theARM version(M chips) orIntel versionfrom KDE directly and install them on your Mac.
With KDE Connect downloaded on both of your devices, open the app on your phone and computer. Assuming both devices are connected to the same network, you should be able to see the name of the other device on each one. Tap the device you’d like to connect on one of them, then accept the request on the other.
On your Mac, KDE Connect can be accessed from the menu bar. Click the icon and then select “Configure.” Now you’re able to select your phone from the sidebar menu, and you’ll see all the available plug-ins. Enable or disable any that you’d like, and be sure to click the settings icon next to a plug-in to configure it.
Over on your Android phone, it’s very similar. Tap your Mac to bring up the options, then select the three-dot menu icon in the top corner and go to “Plugin Settings.” If a plug-in needs permissions to work, you’ll see it listed on the main device tab.
And that’s pretty much it! I recommend adding KDE Connect to the list of apps that run at login on your Mac. The one issue I’ve had is that the devices occasionally do not connect when I turn on my computer. Otherwise, it has worked very well for me.
For those familiar withMicrosoft’s Phone Link on Windows, some of this will sound familiar. Phone Link offers notification syncing and file transfers, creating a nice bridge for Windows users. However, many of its best features are exclusively available to users with specific Samsung Galaxy phones.
KDE Connect, on the other hand, doesn’t care what brand of Android phone you have or what kind of computer you use. If you’re a Mac and Android user who’s been craving a more unified experience, give KDE Connect a try. You’ll wonder how you ever lived without it.
