this post was submitted on 09 Nov 2026
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Privacy

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Hi everyone,

I currently use Telegram to send photos, PDFs and text messages between my Android phone and my Debian laptop. It works, but everything goes through a third-party server, and I would like a fully local, privacy-friendly alternative.

What I need: Send photos, PDFs and other files in both directions (phone ↔ laptop) Send short text messages or clipboard content Works locally

Thanks for any advice and experience!

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[–] qmv0y2923xtkk2cy@lemmy.ml 11 points 2 days ago
[–] SHY_TUCKER@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Use primitive Ftp or solid explorer on the phone to mount your phone's disk right on your pc. On the PC side Dolphin (Linux) or freecommander (windows) are great file explorers for this. I also use KDE connect, but the ftp mount is way more powerful.

[–] Stopwatch1986@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 days ago

This or the other way round. FTPClient (f-droid) on the phone to access a PC.

[–] ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 2 days ago

For files I use localsend to transfer directly between devices on the same network.

[–] anotherspinelessdem@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 days ago

Onionshare should work. You temporarily (or longer if desired) turn a folder/s into an onion site, which you can use to share between computers, not limited to just your own but also to others you give the key to.

[–] hexagonwin@lemmy.today 2 points 2 days ago

i use copyparty, connecting thru browser. but i also still use telegram saved messages like you because having a timeline helps my workflow. i wonder if there's an alternative to that.

CX Explorer using FTP

[–] Admetus@sopuli.xyz 2 points 2 days ago

Kongpiler2 says kdeconnect, if you're using KDE it's extremely efficient. An extension is also developed for Gnome to employ kdeconnect but my experience with that was marred by connectivity issues. Something to bear in mind.

[–] nastyyboi@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

Since Syncthing and LocalSend are already mentioned.

Transfer is another alternative.

There are plenty of good suggestions already, but one thing I do very often to get text from my computer to my phone is just displaying the text as a QR code and scanning that. You can make it work the other way around if you have a webcam, but that's a bit more work.

[–] currentlyscaly@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] TerHu@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I've been asked to install that, but from what I can tell its a proprietary blob that can only be acquired through google (or aurora or a mirror OFC, but they all source it from google too, and habe their own downsides)

therefore I kinda worry about privacy and security there

[–] currentlyscaly@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago

Yes, it's proprietary but it has e2ee and can be used behind a vpn unlike localsend

[–] LewdLemon@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 days ago

Since Syncthing and LocalSend were already mentioned - let's throw in Warpinator:

  • built by the Linux Mint team
  • has had an (inofficial) Android client for a while now
  • works well (although Syncthing is a lot more powerful and requires fewer clicks once it's set up)
[–] Captain_Baka@feddit.org 1 points 2 days ago

Haven't tried this between Linux and Android (according to Github this works), but I know from Android to Android Photon works very good.

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