OpenBridge v1.1.1

Your phone's own hotspot now works. Turn on the hotspot from your phone's quick settings, join it from your Mac, Windows or Linux computer, and the phone shows up by itself, ready to pair. No router, no shared Wi‑Fi, no typing addresses.

Added

• Phone hotspot connections. The phone shares on its own hotspot, whichever hotspot it is, including phones that hide it from apps (vivo, for one). Computers look for the phone at the hotspot's gateway, so it appears under Phones nearby even before it was ever paired. Settings › Phone hotspot points straight to your phone's hotspot settings (your own name and password, or none, and your computer remembers it); OpenBridge's temporary hotspot is still there as a second option.
• Status in the menu bar (Mac) and system tray (Windows, Linux). The sun icon shows whether a phone is connected and draws a progress ring while files move. Click it for a small panel with the phone, how it's connected (Wi‑Fi, Phone hotspot, Fast USB or USB), the file, a progress bar, speed, time left, and Open, Disconnect and Cancel buttons. Long names shorten instead of wrapping.
• Checkboxes on every file and folder in Dusk, Aurora and Tide, list and grid, plus a select all or none box in the toolbar.

Fixed

• Secure connections failed on some phones (vivo on Android 17 among them). The phone's identity key couldn't sign the encrypted handshake the way Android asks it to, so every connection over Wi‑Fi, the hotspot or Fast USB failed right after reaching the phone. The phone now uses an ECDSA P-256 identity made for this. It's a new identity, so computers that saved the phone pair once more.
• A phone that went away left the computer stuck on the last folder, with Disconnect doing nothing. Now the computer notices within seconds, says "Lost the connection to the phone.", goes back to the connect screen and reconnects by itself when the phone is back, continuing any unfinished transfer. Disconnect always works, even in the middle of a transfer or while a folder loads.
• Aurora's download progress was nearly invisible. The horizon now shows a proper progress pill: which way, the file name, a bar, the percent and "x of y", with Cancel (or Resume after an error) right there.
• Aurora and Tide hid sort, view and the photo filter in the ⋯ menu. They now have their own toolbar buttons, like Dusk, at every window size.
• The Mac's diagnostics show the default gateway, what answered there, and which phones are announced on the network.

Checksums: see SHA256SUMS.txt. Full history: CHANGELOG.md

Android signing certificate (SHA-256): 4e41b5c80d00e40b264abfe65c986a8b6d1f4fdff7e6d17eeb66105ae4bb1685

OpenBridge v1.1.0

Aurora and Tide become real layouts on the Mac, Windows and Linux, not just new colours.

Added

• Aurora, the observatory. Your phone and its halo sit in a sky header, with every phone you know as a glowing orb to switch between. The folder path runs along the horizon like a constellation, a comet carries your transfers across it (click it for the queue), and your files float on one frosted sheet, as a gallery by default.
• Tide, the harbour. Phones are portholes in a rail on the left, full of water when connected. The path shows depth, files are rounded capsules that fill with water when selected, and the water at the bottom of the window rises with your transfers, which float in it until they're done.
• New connect screens: in Aurora, nearby and saved phones are stars around the halo; in Tide they rise as bubbles from the pool. The 6-digit code shows in the middle while pairing.
• Grid view in every look, remembered per look (Aurora opens as a gallery, Dusk and Tide as lists). In the grid, the arrow keys move by tile and by row.

Changed

• Switching looks in Settings crossfades straight away and keeps your folder, selection and running transfers.
• Dusk keeps its layout.

Checksums: see SHA256SUMS.txt. Full history: CHANGELOG.md

Android signing certificate (SHA-256): 4e41b5c80d00e40b264abfe65c986a8b6d1f4fdff7e6d17eeb66105ae4bb1685

OpenBridge v1.0.0

OpenBridge 1.0: files, text and your screen between an Android phone and a Mac, Windows or Linux computer, over Wi‑Fi, a cable or the phone's own hotspot. No account, no cloud. Everything from 0.13 (Fast USB, texts, Linux, Windows USB browsing, the new phone design and looks, self-installing updates), plus a bug-fix pass over all four apps.

What 1.0 promises

• The protocol is frozen. Any 1.x computer works with any 1.x phone; new features only ever add operations (see docs/protocol.md).
• Updates in place. The APK is signed with the OpenBridge key, and every app can update itself from here on, checked against each release's SHA256SUMS.txt.

Fixed

• Android: sharing files or the clipboard to OpenBridge no longer queues everything twice when the phone is rotated meanwhile.
• Android: trusted computers, texts and waiting files are no longer copied to a new phone in Android 12+ device-to-device transfers.
• Android: with "Keep sharing in the background" off, sharing to OpenBridge from another app or the tile no longer starts sharing unseen; it opens the app instead.
• Android: stopping and restarting sharing quickly keeps the usual port, so saved computers find the phone right away.
• Android: a rare crash when sharing stopped just as its background notification was starting.
• Android: the share button no longer animates behind Settings or when scrolled away, saving battery.
• Whole phone: previews no longer hold up browsing, downloads and search while a computer loads them.
• Windows and Linux: Fast USB no longer stops working, and quitting no longer hangs, when adb gets stuck on a phone.
• Windows: installing an update no longer risks adb keeping the app's files in use; Fast USB carries on if the installer fails to start.
• Windows and Linux: if switching from Wi‑Fi to Fast USB fails, the app stays connected over Wi‑Fi instead of dropping the phone.
• Windows and Linux: transfer errors (file gone, already exists, changed, too large) are shown in Chinese too.
• Mac: no leftover Fast USB tunnel when moving from Wi‑Fi to the cable doesn't work.
• Mac: after Disconnect, a phone in File transfer mode is no longer reopened in the background.
• Mac: after a self-update, the downloaded disk image is ejected and removed.
• Mac: Aurora and Tide stop animating while the window is minimized or hidden.
• Mac: ⌘↑ and ⌘↓ in the search field move the text cursor instead of changing folders or downloading.
• Mac: copying a text from Texts history no longer sends it back to the phone when automatic sending is on.

Notes

• Coming from 0.13: just click Update in each app. From older versions, download once from the release page.
• Aurora and Tide are still marked Preview: tell us what you think.

Checksums: see SHA256SUMS.txt. Full history: CHANGELOG.md

Android signing certificate (SHA-256): 4e41b5c80d00e40b264abfe65c986a8b6d1f4fdff7e6d17eeb66105ae4bb1685

OpenBridge v0.13.0

The big one before 1.0: Linux, Fast USB, texts, Windows USB browsing, a new phone design with three looks, and updates that install themselves.

Added

• OpenBridge for Linux. A .deb and a portable .tar.gz, with discovery, pairing, browsing, texts and screen mirroring (scrcpy bundled), in English and 简体中文.
• Fast USB. Turn on USB debugging once and the cable gets everything Wi‑Fi has: instant search, real folder sizes, resumable copies, texts. Plug in and the computer starts sharing on the phone by itself, pairs a new phone over the cable with the usual 6 digits, and moves a Wi‑Fi connection onto the cable (and back when you unplug). On the Mac, Windows and Linux.
• Windows: browse the phone over USB inside OpenBridge. File transfer mode now opens in OpenBridge's own window, with previews, sizes, search, rename, delete and drag and drop, through Windows' own driver. Open in File Explorer is still there.
• Texts. Share text to OpenBridge on the phone, tap the new Send clipboard quick settings tile or notification button, or type on the computer and send it. It lands on the other clipboard, with a history of the last 30 on both sides. Optionally, text you copy on the computer goes to the phone by itself (off by default; never what password managers mark as secret).
• A new phone design with an animated background, a big share button, smooth cards for computers, sending and texts, and a Settings sheet.
• Three looks: Dusk, plus Aurora (northern lights, a shimmering halo) and Tide (rolling waves, a glass pool that fills when a computer connects), in preview. Pick one in Settings on the phone and the computer.
• Updates that install themselves. Click Update: the new version is downloaded, checked against the release's SHA256SUMS.txt, and installed (Android asks you to confirm).
• Phone hotspot (Android 13+), for hotel, campus and guest Wi‑Fi that keeps devices apart. The computers notice such networks, explain them, and find a phone on its own hotspot by themselves.
• Instant search for photos, videos and music, from the phone's own media index.
• Big shares don't eat storage. Sharing a big video sends it from where it is instead of copying it first (with All files access).
• Copy diagnostics in Settings on every app: a short report for bug reports, with no secrets, texts or file contents.
• Accessibility: screen-reader labels everywhere, full keyboard use of the computer browsers, announcements when a phone connects or leaves, and still backgrounds with reduce motion.
• Import new photos works over every connection, including plain USB on Windows.
• The computer tells you when the phone's OpenBridge is older than its own.

Changed

• Mac: Return renames the selected item, like Finder; ⌘↓ or ⌘O opens it.
• Wording says "computer" rather than "PC" or "Mac" where it means any of them.
• The wire protocol gains OUTBOX ALL (texts) and INFO, and is frozen for 1.0: a 1.x computer works with any 1.x phone. Every build fuzzes the phone's protocol handler with 35,000 random and half-valid requests.

Fixed

• Mac over USB: an item listed twice by the phone showed twice; an item whose name the phone left out of its property list was hidden from search; very long names (common in Chinese) were hidden; an SD card reporting more free space than its size showed a nonsense used size.

Notes

• Update the phone app too: texts, Fast USB and the hotspot need 0.13 on both sides.
• Fast USB uses Android's USB debugging, which gives a trusted computer broad access to the phone (see SECURITY.md). It's optional; File transfer still works without it.

Checksums: see SHA256SUMS.txt. Full history: CHANGELOG.md

Android signing certificate (SHA-256): 4e41b5c80d00e40b264abfe65c986a8b6d1f4fdff7e6d17eeb66105ae4bb1685

OpenBridge v0.12.2

Fixes from real-device testing of 0.12.1.

Fixed

• Mac over USB: folder sizes and search were wrong. Android lists a folder together with what's in it, and OpenBridge took the folder for one of its own subfolders, counting and searching it again and again. Sizes came out enormous ("My files ≥ 49 TB"), search found the same files several times ("My files › My files"), stopped early, and the list showed gaps as the duplicates piled up. Each folder is now visited once, and every item counted once.
• Search results follow the sort order and grid view, and the photos-and-videos filter, like a folder does; photos show previews.
• Back to the results. After opening a folder or file's location from the results, a Results button returns to them. Done closes the results and stays in the folder you searched.
• Windows: search results follow the sort order and filter, each hit once.

Checksums: see SHA256SUMS.txt. Full history: CHANGELOG.md

Android signing certificate (SHA-256): 4e41b5c80d00e40b264abfe65c986a8b6d1f4fdff7e6d17eeb66105ae4bb1685

OpenBridge v0.12.1

Fixes from real-device testing of 0.12.0: search every folder, folder sizes over USB, and a toolbar that no longer squashes its text.

Added

• Search every folder. Type in the search field and press Return (or click Search all folders) to find files and folders by name anywhere inside the open folder, like ".iso" from the top of the phone. Results show where each one is; double-click to open or download, or right-click › Show in Folder. Works over Wi‑Fi on the Mac and Windows, and over USB on the Mac.

Fixed

• Mac: folder sizes over USB. Folders opened over the cable showed "—". They're now counted too, using Android's bulk folder queries so it takes a couple of requests per folder (phones without them are counted file by file, for up to 8 seconds). A storage area shows its used space.
• Mac: text broke when the window got narrower. The toolbar squeezed the path to "…" and wrapped Download letter by letter. When space runs out the controls now move to a second row, deep paths keep the first and last folders with the rest behind "…", and buttons never wrap. The phone card's shortcuts wrap onto a second row instead of shortening to "Downl…".
• Windows: buttons never wrap their labels.

Notes

• Searching over Wi‑Fi needs the 0.12.1 phone app; update both.

Checksums: see SHA256SUMS.txt. Full history: CHANGELOG.md

Android signing certificate (SHA-256): 4e41b5c80d00e40b264abfe65c986a8b6d1f4fdff7e6d17eeb66105ae4bb1685

OpenBridge v0.12.0

Send from the phone: share photos and files to your computer from any app, import only the new photos, uploads that survive a dropped connection, and mirroring without the cable.

Added

• Send from the phone. In the gallery, Files or any app, tap Share › OpenBridge. The files arrive in Downloads/OpenBridge on your Mac or PC as soon as it's connected (or the next time it connects), and the phone drops its copy once they're safely there. If sharing is off, OpenBridge starts it, or asks you to tap the sun. Files waiting to send are listed on the phone's main screen, with Clear.
• Import new photos. One click copies the camera's photos and videos that you haven't imported from that phone yet, into a folder you pick once. OpenBridge remembers what it imported, and an import that's cut off never makes duplicates. On the Mac it works over USB too.
• Uploads continue after a dropped connection. If an upload from your computer is cut off, the phone keeps what arrived and the next upload of the same file continues from there, over Wi‑Fi. A file you've changed since starts over, so old and new bytes never mix.
• Mirroring over Wi‑Fi (beta). Start mirroring on the cable, then click Go wireless (Mac) or Mirror over Wi‑Fi (Windows) and unplug. Closing the window switches the phone back to cable-only debugging.

Notes

• Update the phone and computer apps together. Older phone apps can't send from the phone or continue uploads; everything else works as before.
• Mirroring over Wi‑Fi uses classic ADB over the network, which isn't encrypted and lets other devices on the network ask to debug the phone while it's on. Use it on a trusted network (see SECURITY.md).

Checksums: see SHA256SUMS.txt. Full history: CHANGELOG.md

Android signing certificate (SHA-256): 4e41b5c80d00e40b264abfe65c986a8b6d1f4fdff7e6d17eeb66105ae4bb1685

OpenBridge v0.11.0

It remembers you: pair once, and your computer reconnects by itself. Plus rename and delete, folder sizes, search, update alerts, Chinese on the phone and Intel Macs.

Added

• Remembered pairing. Pair once with the 6-digit code; after that the Mac or PC reconnects by itself whenever the phone is sharing, even at a new address or on a Wi‑Fi where phones don't show up. Your phones are listed under Your phones on the computer, and the phone lists the computers it trusts under Trusted computers, with Forget on both sides.
• The phone shows who's asking. Pairing requests and the status say the computer's name, like "Pair with Aditya's MacBook Air?" and "Aditya's MacBook Air is connected".
• Rename and delete files and folders on the phone, from the Mac (right-click, the ⋯ menu, or ⌘⌫) and Windows (the ⋯ menu, F2 and Delete). Deleting always asks first, since the phone has no bin. On the Mac this works over USB File transfer too.
• Folder sizes. Folders show their total size over Wi‑Fi, counted on the phone in the background, and sort by size. Very large folders show "≥" once the phone has counted for a few seconds.
• Search and a photos-and-videos filter in every folder, on the Mac and Windows.
• Update alerts. All three apps check GitHub once per launch and show a link when a new version is out. Nothing is installed automatically.
• 简体中文 on the phone. The Android app follows the phone's language, like the Windows app.
• Intel Macs. The Mac app is now a universal app for Apple Silicon and Intel.

Changed

• The phone keeps one identity for as long as the app is installed, and gives each computer its own secret, stored only as a hash. It prefers port 41987, so saved computers find it again.
• A computer the phone no longer trusts (forgotten, or the app reinstalled) is told so straight away and asked to pair again, instead of timing out.

Notes

• Update the phone app and the computer apps together. Computers still pair with older phone apps, but can't rename, delete or measure folders on them.
• After updating, pair once more: phones on 0.9.10 and earlier made a new identity every time they started sharing.

Checksums: see SHA256SUMS.txt. Full history: CHANGELOG.md

Android signing certificate (SHA-256): 4e41b5c80d00e40b264abfe65c986a8b6d1f4fdff7e6d17eeb66105ae4bb1685

OpenBridge v0.9.2

Share your whole phone over Wi-Fi, not just one folder.

Added

• Share whole phone. Besides Choose folder, the Android app can now share all of internal storage and any SD card. Android asks once for All files access; the Mac then browses, downloads and uploads anywhere, just like over USB, but wireless and encrypted. Android keeps Android/data and Android/obb private.
• Uploads in whole-phone mode publish with a move that refuses to replace an existing file, and symbolic links are never followed.

Changed

• The Mac labels the top of the phone's storage "Phone".

Notes

• Installs over 0.9.1 without uninstalling. Still a preview, not yet verified on physical devices.

Checksums: see SHA256SUMS.txt. Full history: CHANGELOG.md

Android signing certificate (SHA-256): 4e41b5c80d00e40b264abfe65c986a8b6d1f4fdff7e6d17eeb66105ae4bb1685

OpenBridge v0.5.0

The first public preview: move files between an Android phone and a Mac, privately, on your own network or over a cable.

Added

• Android app (Android 8.0 and later): pick one local folder and share it with your Mac while the app is open. Each start shows the phone's address, port, certificate fingerprint and a fresh pairing secret.
• Mac app (macOS 13 and later): pair with the phone, then browse folders, download files to the Mac and upload files to the phone, with progress and cancel.
• Private by design: every Wi-Fi request is encrypted with TLS, and the Mac checks the phone's certificate fingerprint before it sends anything. No accounts, no cloud, no tracking.
• Never overwrites: existing files are never replaced on either side, and interrupted transfers clean up after themselves.
• USB File transfer on the Mac (beta): plug in the phone, choose File transfer, and press Connect over USB to browse and move files, like on Windows. No app needed on the phone.

Known limitations

• This is a preview. It has passed automated tests but has not yet been verified on physical devices. Please report problems, following SECURITY.md for anything security related.
• Pairing over Wi-Fi requires typing the address, port, fingerprint and secret.
• The APK is signed with a build-machine key and the Mac app is not notarized; see the README for how to install and open them. If you installed an earlier test build, uninstall it first.

Checksums: see SHA256SUMS.txt. Full history: CHANGELOG.md