Linksy v0.3.5

Important

If Play Protect stops the install, pause Scan apps with Play Protect while installing (Play Store › your picture › Play Protect › the gear at the top right), then turn it back on.

Added

• A page for another phone or tablet, with no computer between them: send what you copied, a note or a link, and find it; then your latest photos and your apps right there to tap, files and folders, and what went between them. See all has photos by day and album, and every app.

• Apps between phones. Each is marked against the other phone: not there, older there (an update), already there, newer, or from another developer. Android asks before installing; a package that isn't what the other phone said is refused. An app's data and logins don't move.

• Before a send: how it will go and about how long, room on the other phone, and whether it will ask first. A direct link comes up while you choose.

• Transfers say which way they go, and why not direct when a direct link failed.

• History with a phone reads as a conversation, newest first: photos, apps, files, links and what you copied, each shown as itself, with Open on an app that came and Copy on text that came.

• A computer's Ask the Phone: a sheet when Linksy is open, a notification when it isn't, for the Inbox or the Gallery.

• Snap to Computer: from a computer's page or a Quick Settings tile, the camera opens and the picture goes to that computer, as a file and on its clipboard. It stays in Pictures/Linksy here too.

• Copy to Computer in Android's menu over selected text, and Settings › Connection › Send what you copy (off by default) for what you copied when you come back to Linksy.

• Why can't I see my computer? in Settings › Connection, and on a computer that isn't connected: Wi-Fi, a VPN, battery saving, Data Saver and whether anything is heard on the network, each with what to do.

• Connect by USB Cable on a computer's page while this phone is plugged into it.

• The terminal's key bar has Home, End, PgUp, PgDn and Ctrl-C.

• A computer's screen shows at the phone's fastest refresh rate.

• Your computer can set this phone's volumes, ringer, Do Not Disturb and flashlight, and sees them change. Do Not Disturb needs the access in Settings › Connection.

• Your computer's notifications here, in Settings › Connection, off by default, in their own channel.

• Snap from a computer: it can open this phone's camera, or ask with a notification when Linksy isn't on screen.

• The sound of what plays here, with this phone's screen on a computer, on Android 10 and up.

• This phone's screen at 60 fps where its encoder can.

• Wi-Fi Direct on the channel the computer's Wi-Fi is on.

• The deck, sideways, takes the whole screen: no bars or header, square tiles across the width. Swipe from the top for them.

• Hold a tile to edit the deck, or an empty spot, as on a home screen. The tile comes up picked, ready to move or resize. Edit sits right under Back when sideways.

• Deck editor on the phone: edit right on the deck with the pencil. Drag a tile, pull any corner or side to any size, and the others make room. Turn the phone for the landscape deck, with its own editor. Tap an empty cell to add, with undo, pages, layouts, themes and Try It. New decks start on Dot Matrix. Saved on this phone until the computer can take it.

Changed

• A computer's page: its picture or the grid, gray while it isn't around, the bar past it in the page's own color, a slim player that opens up, its controls as tiles, what this phone can be as chips, and History as the conversation.
• Files on their way: a bar along the bottom of a device's page, with the way they go, instead of the circle. Tap it to open it up, to the speed, each file and Cancel.
• The home screen before your first device: an arrow leads from the steps to Add a device, instead of a second set of buttons for the same thing.

Fixed

• A file that arrived after leaving Linksy with Back stayed in Linksy's private folder, out of reach of other apps. Back now leaves Linksy running, like Home, and anything left there moves to your Save location when Linksy opens.
• Linksy could crash when a small file finished arriving just as it opened.

Linksy v0.3.4

Important

If Play Protect stops the install, pause Scan apps with Play Protect while installing (Play Store › your picture › Play Protect › the gear at the top right), then turn it back on.

Added

• First-run setup offers Messages on your computers (the computer's Inbox) and Photos on your computers (its Gallery), with an Allow button each.
• A one-time card on the home screen, for people updating: "Your messages and photos on your computers", with a Turn On button for whichever is off.
• Settings > Files > Save location: tap it to choose where received files go. Use Downloads › Linksy brings it back.

Changed

• Show this phone's notifications is on by default: nothing is sent until Android's Notification access is allowed. If you turned it off, it stays off.
• On Android 13 and later, the steps for Android's greyed-out switch now come first, starting with tapping that switch: App info only shows ⋮ › Allow restricted settings after Android has refused once. They close by themselves once it's allowed.
• If Android won't ask for your photos again, the message has a button to App info.

Fixed

• A one-cell deck label like "Bluetooth" could break mid-word in Stock, Signal, Glass and Midnight.

Linksy v0.3.3

Important

If Play Protect stops the install, pause Scan apps with Play Protect while installing (Play Store › your picture › Play Protect › the gear at the top right), then turn it back on. Linksy now asks for your photos too, for Photos on your computers.

Added

• Deck: this phone as buttons for a computer (its page › Control › Deck, with Linksy for computers' next release). Play, skip, volume, mute, lock, Wi-Fi, power profiles and the computer's own commands, laid out in the computer's deck editor: pages of tiles, the music playing there with its cover, a clock, a volume slider, a layout for each way the phone is held. Five looks from the computer (Standard, Dot Matrix, E-Ink, Terminal, Pixel) and three of the phone's own (Signal, Glass, Midnight): hold the deck's name to pick one. Restart, turn off, Wi-Fi and airplane mode ask first. The deck shows straight away, even while the computer is away; the screen stays on and dims after a minute untouched.
• Photos on your computers (Settings › Files): a computer's Gallery looks through this phone's photos and videos page by page, and saves the ones picked there. Asks Android for the photos the first time.
• Messages on your computer: the conversation's earlier messages, mail subjects, your own answers on your side, and Reply still working for a day after the notification is gone. Turning notifications on the computers off forgets the messages kept for it.
• Reduce motion (Settings › This app): screens fade instead of sliding, and buttons dim instead of shrinking. Linksy also follows the phone's own "Remove animations".

Changed

• Update sheet: the release notes show in full; the sheet scrolls down to Update Now instead of the notes scrolling in their own small box.
• Every tap shows: buttons dip even on a quick tap in a list, keys and media buttons light up while pressed, and a switch row toggles from anywhere on it.
• Phone as mouse: Touchpad and Slides slide from one to the other, as does the pill above them; the camera's tabs and choices slide the same way.
• Clipboard and Ping show "Sent" for a moment, Find it rings at once, Pair and Stop show they're working, and the last few Material buttons now press like the rest.
• Things that come and go (notices, share banners, players, the number pad, the Recommended card) make room and close up instead of jumping.
• What arrives is felt too: a ping knocks twice, copied text and links give a light tick, as do files when they come in and when they're all there, both ways. The snack bar shows what came.
• A ping or a link from a computer while Linksy isn't on screen now shows a notification ("From your computers") instead of waiting in the timeline.
• Find my phone: a soft wave leaves the bell while it rings.

Fixed

• A one-to-one chat answered on the phone showed on the computer under your own name ("You", "Vous"); it keeps the other person's.
• A computer copying files to or from the phone no longer waits for each request in turn, and paths outside the shared folder are refused.
• The transfer bubble's check vanished at once when files finished; it now stays while the bubble goes.

Linksy v0.3.2

Important

Play Protect may block this version. Linksy can now show your phone's notifications on your computers, so Google Play Protect may stop the install ("App blocked to protect your device") when it doesn't come from the Play Store. To install it:

1. Open the Play Store, tap your picture, then Play Protect, then the gear at the top right.
2. Turn off Scan apps with Play Protect.
3. Install Linksy (or tap Update Now in the app), then turn scanning back on.

To show notifications on your computer: turn on Settings › With your computers › Show this phone's notifications. On Android 13 and later, Android greys out Linksy's switch in Notification access when it was installed from the web: open App info for Linksy, tap ⋮ at the top right, then Allow restricted settings, and turn Linksy on again. Linksy walks you through it.

Added

• This phone's notifications on your computers: Settings › With your computers › Show this phone's notifications. Each one shows on your paired computers (Linksy 0.11 there), with Reply for messages (WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, the SMS app, without any SMS permission) and the app's own buttons. Dismissing it on the computer dismisses it on the phone, and the other way. Linksy's own notifications and ongoing ones (music, navigation, downloads) stay on the phone, and nothing is kept on either side. It needs Android's Notification access: on Android 13 and later, Android greys out that switch for apps installed from the web, and Linksy shows how to allow it (App info › ⋮ › Allow restricted settings). Android 15 may still hide the text of some notifications from Linksy, such as one-time codes.
• Messages on your computer: a chat's notification also tells the computer which chat it's in, who wrote the newest message, when, whether it's a group, and the person's or group's picture, so the computer can show your conversations on its Messages page (needs the computer's Linksy that has it). Turning notifications on or off tells your connected computers at once, without reconnecting.
• Keep Linksy alive: Settings › Connection › Keep Linksy alive lists what to change on your phone's brand (Xiaomi, Samsung, OPPO, realme, OnePlus, vivo, Huawei, Honor and others) so it doesn't close Linksy in the background.
• Logs: each read and write on the USB cable, for the first moments of a connection, then a summary every few seconds.

Changed

• Update sheet: says what to do when Play Protect blocks the install, step by step.
• What's New is back for this version: notifications on your computer, and Keep Linksy alive.

Fixed

• USB cable: when the cable's link closes because the computer said nothing for 5 seconds, Linksy lets the cable go and opens it again, instead of staying on "connecting" until it's unplugged. Only Linksy reads the cable, and closing it no longer leaves a read waiting on it.
• Smaller download: the app no longer carries two libraries it never used (about 1.4 MB on 64-bit phones).

Linksy v0.3.1

Changed

• Update check: Linksy now looks for a new version each time you open it, at most once an hour, instead of once a day when it starts. Linksy keeps running in the background, so a new version could go unnoticed for days. It still never downloads anything by itself: "Linksy X Is Available" shows at the top of the home page, and closing it hides that version.

Linksy v0.3.0

A new look across the app: calmer, with the same blue and the same island.

Added

• All files: "Let computers browse files" can share all of the phone's storage instead of one folder. Choosing All files opens Android's own "All files access" page for Linksy; a folder you choose stays the default (#17).
• Device settings: each device has its own settings page behind the gear on its page: its picture, photo backup, its clipboard, what it may do from away, and Forget.
• Settings search: type what you're looking for and Linksy opens the right page with that setting lit up.

Changed

• Settings: a short main page with a Recommended next step and four pages: Files, Connection, With your computers and This app. Check for Updates and Logs stay on the main page, permissions are in This app, and the relay server is set in a sheet from the bottom.
• Device pages: Send files and the quick actions (Clipboard, Ping, Find it) share one card. Remote, the computer's screen and the Terminal are under Control; the webcam, microphone and second display are under "This phone as", as status only. Back and the gear stay at the top while you scroll. Watching a computer's screen asks Control or Watch in a sheet.
• Home: calmer, with quieter headings and status, soft send and pair buttons, and a centred welcome when nothing is paired yet.
• Updates: the update sheet shows what changed and the APK it installs, with a full-width Update Now that fills as it downloads.
• Launch: the Linksy mark flies from the splash screen into the logo at the top.

Linksy v0.2.13

Fixed

• Screen sharing on phones whose video encoder refuses the screen's size: a Samsung Galaxy A70 on Android 11 refused its own portrait screen and sharing failed at once. Linksy now uses the largest size of the same shape the encoder takes, or Android's own encoder when it refuses anyway. The webcam does the same, and the Logs page says which encoder and size it uses (releases#6).

Linksy v0.2.12

Changed

• USB cable: the phone's end of the cable now runs on linksy-core's own bridge, which speaks the cable's new version (Linksy 0.11 on the computer): it reads the cable the way Android expects, answers the computer's checks and lets go cleanly when the cable goes quiet. Computers with an older Linksy keep working as before.
• Names of other devices are tidied by linksy-core: no invisible or direction-changing characters, at most 48 characters.

Added

• Controlled over the cable: when a computer with Linksy 0.11 takes control of this phone's screen over the USB cable, the screen sharing notification says "Controlled from" that computer, and Stop ends it.
• Choose Screen: watching or controlling a computer's screen, a button in the corner asks the computer to pick another monitor (desktop#15). Someone picks it on the computer.
• USB cable: the phone says it's connecting while it reaches the computer through the cable, then opens that computer's page.
• Logs: what the video encoder and the camera do (which encoder, the first frame, or none after 3 seconds), and each step of the USB cable, so a shared log says why a webcam or screen share shows no picture, or why the cable didn't connect.

Fixed

• USB cable on a phone that's already paired: the phone tries the computer a few times before offering to pair over the cable, instead of offering pairing after one failed try.
• Webcam with the phone locked: the phone keeps its processor and Wi-Fi awake while it shares its camera, microphone or screen, so the picture doesn't freeze when it locks.

Security

• Device keys stay on this phone: Android backups and phone-to-phone transfers leave Linksy's data out, so the phone's identity can't be copied to another phone. After moving to a new phone, pair your computers again (#18, #19, thanks @bearyjd).

Linksy v0.2.11

Added

• Safer pairing codes: pairing now commits to its code before revealing it, so the six digits are even harder to fake (linksy-core, protocol §4.3 and §4.4). When the other device has an older Linksy, a small line under the code suggests updating it; pairing works as before.

Fixed

• Switching networks: when the phone moves between Wi-Fi and mobile data, or gets a new address, Linksy checks its links at once, closes the ones that no longer answer, and reconnects, instead of waiting up to 30 seconds. Away from home connects alongside Wi-Fi when the computer isn't seen on the network.
• Logs: lines from an earlier day show their date.

Linksy v0.2.10

Changed

• Scroll direction everywhere: the reverse scroll setting now also applies to two-finger scrolling on a computer's screen (extended screen and control screen), not only the touchpad (#14).

Fixed

• Extended and control screens react faster: after a tap, the computer's screen on the phone updated noticeably later than while swiping, because the last frame waited for the next one. It now shows as soon as the stream pauses (desktop#42).
• Computers stay nearby: the phone looks again a few seconds after paired devices change their private name (every 15 minutes) and right after one goes, so a computer no longer stays "not nearby" while it's right there (desktop#50).