androidauthority.com

otter, to android in Microsoft Phone Link may soon let you use your Android phone as a webcam
@otter@lemmy.ca avatar

I thought this was built into Android 14, and it’s relatively simple already?

digitaltrends.com/…/how-to-turn-android-phone-int…

I always found Phone Link to be bloated and buggy. KDE connect was more reliable for what I needed

Bluefruit,

I was curious if someone was gonna mention KDE connect. From what i saw it looked pretty good though i havent used it myself.

atocci,
@atocci@kbin.social avatar

I guess it needs a cable though, and Phone Link is wireless?

otter,
@otter@lemmy.ca avatar

Yea I guess so, I’d be curious about the latency from that

atocci,
@atocci@kbin.social avatar

My Asus laptop came with their own version of this preinstalled. I had to install the corresponding app on my phone, but when I tried it out, I had no noticeable amount of latency for anything you would use a webcam for. It was over a relatively fast WiFi 6 connection though.

SatyrSack,

Does GrapheneOS not support this? I am not seeing a Webcam option under Use USB for

EDIT: discuss.grapheneos.org/d/8672-phone-as-webcam/3

Seemingly it is still a pending feature, that will be included with the December quarterly feature release (“QPR1”). The only people who are using it now on their phones are running QPR1 betas, which I think first began releasing in September.

RanchOnPancakes, to android in You might be able to control Reddit's Android app font size, finally
@RanchOnPancakes@lemmy.world avatar

Even when I still used reddit I wouldn’t be caught dead in the default app.

ijeff,
@ijeff@lemdro.id avatar

I tried it out during the initial drama and was astonished to see it still missing such a basic accessibility feature. Their app lead said it would be looked into… But it seems like such a wild omission.

CJOtheReal, to android in Microsoft Phone Link may soon let you use your Android phone as a webcam

No thanks, i don’t want to install Malware on my phone.

Vilian,

kdeconnect is the way

dvdnet89,
@dvdnet89@lemmy.today avatar

you cannot use phone camera on kde connect

ExtremeDullard,
@ExtremeDullard@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

You don’t have to:

Create a work profile managed by Shelter. then install the sketchy Microsoft app - along with all the other sketchy apps you don’t trust - in the work profile where they won’t have access to any of your important data or contacts, won’t have any permission you don’t want to give them, and where you can freeze them and neuter them completely when they’re not in use.

Here’s a good howto for Shelter and work profiles. Work profiles are great: they’re just as good as separate accounts to keep unstrustworthy apps from accessing data you don’t want them to get at and putting you under surveillance, but they’re a lot more flexible than separate accounts.

Work profiles are a standard Android feature that everybody who cares about privacy should use.

dhtseany, to android in Google Messages prepares a feature that will do your ears a favor -

What if I just want my phone’s text messaging app to only do text messages? What if I don’t want fluff features like voice messages that I didn’t ask for? Is there a simple vanilla text messaging app to take over texts on my phone since Google feels the need to add extra weight to Messages, an otherwise simple feature that all cell phones share?

Iamdanno, (edited )

For years I used Textra. It did SMS amazingly. I only switched to Google Messages for RCS support, although I believe Textra added that now.

SteveCC,

I’m not seeing that it does RCS. Would love to see a Foss app that does. Anyone?

BearOfaTime,

None do yet, because Google doesn’t publish an API for apps to use RCS.

Another reason I say fuck RCS.

skuzz,

None will, Google is slowly closed-sourcing the entire platform. Messaging was one of the next steps. Also why apps like Signal won’t be seeing carrier messaging in the future.

smileyhead,

The fact we need Google and phone carrier approval to use the system is a reason to drop it.

inasaba,

I personally use QKSMS, which isn’t perfect, but it’s all I’ve been able to stand since Signal dropped SMS support.

This RCS stuff scares me a bit, because it sounds like it will function over a data connection and not be nearly as universal of a standard as SMS/MMS is. There are already a million such apps and standards if one wants to use data for messaging. Trying to sneak it on top of SMS is very annoying. If I use my SMS app, I want my messages to be sent as such. Getting a surprise data bill shouldn’t be a fear.

thoughts3rased,

RCS does function over a data connection (and WiFi!), however unless you’re sending large files over the wire it’s probably not going to have any effect on your data bill. Text messages are a handful of kilobytes large at worst. SMS/MMS have lots of issues to do with security and capability, and most handsets support it in some form already.

inasaba,

Not everyone has a large data plan. I am very aware of how much messaging taxes my data plan: the entirety of my data is already used by it.

PainInTheAES,

Then disable RCS chats in the settings? I doubt traditional SMS is going anywhere soon.

helenslunch,

the entirety of my data is already used by it

You are mistaken.

inasaba,

I’m really not. 75% of my data this month has been used by Signal and Discord.

helenslunch,

Very unsurprising that Discord consumes a bunch of data but that’s not really a “messaging app”.

If Signal is consuming too much data, it’s because you’re in too many group chats with photos and videos. You can change the settings so media will only download over Wi-Fi.

inasaba,

Many people do use Discord as a messaging app. I am really only using it for private messages when I am on data.

I only have two Signal contacts, and no group chats. Video is set to download only on WiFi, but I do need to be able to see images.

helenslunch,

If you’re using Discord for private messages, you are making another mistake.

inasaba,

You say that as if I don’t already know it. But what am I supposed to do, abandon every friend who prefers it?

helenslunch,

I don’t know what you know. You’re the one who said you were using it for “private” messaging. Just letting you know.

danhakimi,
@danhakimi@kbin.social avatar

nobody thinks discord is e2ee. "private messages" usually means the same thing as "direct messages" -- messages between a defined set of people as opposed to an open group. You know and understand this term, you're just being a dick because you think that's an effective way to convince people to stop using proprietary software without basic features like e2ee. You're wrong.

helenslunch,

I do know and understand the difference, which is exactly why I made the correction. I’m not being a dick, I’m trying to correct poor nomenclature. I’m not trying to convince anyone to do anything except make informed decisions. I’d argue that’s the opposite of being a dick. But thanks for weighing in.

danhakimi,
@danhakimi@kbin.social avatar

You're trying to "correct" the correct usage of vernacular English because you feel like reinventing the language to suit your personal idea of what it should be. English is bigger than you. The phrase "private messaging" has meaning, and it's not up to you to decide what that meaning is.

helenslunch,

The phrase “private messaging” has meaning, and it’s not up to you to decide what that meaning is.

Uhhhh I’m not “deciding” the meaning. It was decided long ago. And I’m not debating it any further with you. Goodbye.

helenslunch,

Trying to sneak it on top of SMS is very annoying

No one is trying to “sneak” anything. The ideal messaging app has advanced messaging features as the primary and then falls back to SMS if it’s unavailable, and that’s exactly how this works.

If you’re looking for a less advanced and secure app, you can very easily install and use anything else.

inasaba,

If I wanted a messaging app with advanced features, I wouldn’t be using the SMS app that came with my phone.

helenslunch,

…and why not?

inasaba,

Because SMS is inherently feature-lite. But it’s free and unlimited, which is kind of the whole point of using it over a feature-rich app that uses data.

helenslunch,

A lot of messaging apps became popular because carriers were charging per-SMS in some countries.

Basic text messaging should consumer virtually zero data. If they are, you should consider using a different app.

inasaba,

Photos use a decent amount of data regardless of what app you’re sending them by.

helenslunch,

It doesn’t consume much more than it does on SMS

inasaba,

SMS/MMS do not count toward data usage here. They are free and unlimited.

anarchoilluminati,
@anarchoilluminati@hexbear.net avatar

QKSMS hasn’t been maintained in a while, besides one update at the start of 2023.

It may be better to go with, and I personally just use, PartisanSMS which is an improved fork of QKSMS.

inasaba,

There haven’t been any issues, so I don’t see why development is needed.

kzhe,

That looks like it’s stopped being developed too. Connect You, a Contacts app originally, is adding SMS support— but right now it kind of sucks, so we probably want to wait a bit for development.

smileyhead,

I think that in SMS there simply is not more to have, they have everything needed.

BearOfaTime,

Textra, QKSMS, NextSMS, PulseSMS, and so on. Many (most, all?) are much better than Google.

space,

Pulse is shit now, it’s been acquired by a sketchy company.

BearOfaTime,

Bummer. I used it for years.

Maybe an old version from apkmirror?

space,

Yes, that could work. I just switched to Google Messages which, other than being from Google, is pretty good.

Ranvier,

Luckily you’re on android and not an iPhone. You can go ahead and install whichever text messaging handling application you would like in its place to use and switch the default app.

WarmSoda,

You’re not forced to use iPhones

Alonely0,
@Alonely0@mastodon.social avatar

@WarmSoda @Ranvier in the US, especially if you're young, you're indirectly forced. Luckily here that's not the case.

Zangoose,

I really don’t know why you’re being down voted, this is definitely true. I’m Gen Z, and I definitely got excluded from group chats in high school because I have an Android phone. Even in college it’s a pain to communicate with people outside of engineering/CS/DS majors because they always complain about the green bubble.

sour,
@sour@kbin.social avatar

why is complain

Ranvier,

I know. I was pointing out one of the nice things that this person can do, since they’re referring specifically to the default android sms handling app, is that android allows you to switch the default to whatever sms app you’d prefer to use. So if you don’t like the direction Google is taking theirs, you can find a different one that better fits with what you prefer.

If you have an iPhone and don’t like the direction apple takes one of their default apps, like sms or phone calling apps, you can’t change the defaults that handle those and other phone functions.

WarmSoda,

Gotcha, I agree with you.

helenslunch,

You can replace it with any of thousands of old shitty SMS apps if you want. It’s not iOS.

Most of us want advanced features and privacy. And unfortunately, in order to get those features, you often have to be using the same app/service across devices. Google seems to have finally caught on that constantly changing messaging apps is killing them, so they made an app to be the “default” on Android devices.

possiblylinux127,

I’m pretty sure not being iOS is a feature.

mp3,
@mp3@lemmy.ca avatar

But then you lose RCS.

helenslunch,

Yes that’s what they asked for

lolcatnip,

I don’t get why some people are so offended by a piece of software having features they aren’t interested in using.

csudcy,

For me, the one feature I want from messages is sending text messages when I don’t have an internet connection. If “having features [I’m not] interested in using” means it breaks the one feature I want (by default & without telling me), seems reasonable to be a bit peeved, no?

lolcatnip,

The connection between having a feature you don’t want and missing one you do want is entirely in your mind. If you’re going to complain, why not complain about what’s actually bothering you?

csudcy,

I thought I was already complaining about what’s actually bothering me 😅

ExtremeDullard, to android in Microsoft Phone Link may soon let you use your Android phone as a webcam
@ExtremeDullard@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

If you’re in Linux and you want the same thing right now, scrcpy already offers to expose your cellphone’s camera as a video4linux device. See here:

github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy/blob/…/v4l2.md

I use it every once in a while when I do a presentation in Teams at work and I need one webcam to show my mush, and another to demonstrate whatever device I’m presenting: I use the cellphone to capture close-ups of the device and focus on features people ask me to show, scrcpy sends the camera capture to a v4l2 device, and Teams uses the v4l2 device as a regular video source.

Super useful!

fatboy93,

Not really an open-source approach, but I found that irium Webcam is generally a lot better if you’re just wanting to use your phone as one.

For some reason scrcpy just doesn’t work well for me.

dragnucs, to privacy in Google is about to make life more difficult for custom ROM fans

That is absolutely not a blow to ROMs by any means. There are plenty of good alternatives. For messaging, alternatives are even better. Dialer apps are just basic ones buy they do exists.

ISOmorph,
@ISOmorph@feddit.de avatar

I do think it will have ramifications in the long run. Google is slowly closing the Android source. At some point it will affect core functions.

Prunebutt,

Let’s hope that Linux Phone OSes will be able to be daily drivers until then.

dragnucs,

That is why we need to work towards having postmarketOs and similarprojectso going.

shortwavesurfer, to privacy in Google is about to make life more difficult for custom ROM fans

LineageOS already maintains these apps from what i understand

chkno,
ikidd, to android in OnePlus may have accidentally revealed OnePlus 12 series global launch
@ikidd@lemmy.world avatar

They still support bootloader unlocking?

Lifebandit666,

Probably, but the ROM support on my OnePlus Nord was Nordne Existent

Send_me_nude_girls, to android in Samsung phones in 2025 might feature a new type of OLED panel
@Send_me_nude_girls@feddit.de avatar

Since my first OLED (Galaxy s6) I’ll never buy a phone without OLED ever again. It’s a huge difference when reading stuff in OLED mode apps and at night. I’d never trade that for anything.

Auli,

I would micro led is supposed to be as good with out the burn in.

Send_me_nude_girls,
@Send_me_nude_girls@feddit.de avatar

I don’t think it’s an issue with phones, as TVs and monitor have static elements for half a day or longer, phones tend to be one for minutes, maybe a few hours max.

My phone doesn’t even have a hint of a burn-in after 3 years of heavy usage (Galaxy S10). I use it way more than most people, often 8 hours a day.

onion, to android in OnePlus may have accidentally revealed OnePlus 12 series global launch

ok

TheGrandNagus, to android in OnePlus may have accidentally revealed OnePlus 12 series global launch

Oh noooooo we’ve accidentally leaked our product and now we have all of this free advertising 🥺👉👈

aberrate_junior_beatnik, to android in OnePlus may have accidentally revealed OnePlus 12 series global launch

Oh I thought they were done with 11

vinan, to android in OnePlus may have accidentally revealed OnePlus 12 series global launch

A well used marketing gimmick.

jeena, to android in Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra with flat display gets leaked in alleged live images
@jeena@jemmy.jeena.net avatar

Damn this is so boring. I still have my S9 and as long as I don’t break the glass or the battery breaks I don’t see much need for a new phone, I just to less and less with it which is quite nice.

TheAlbatross,

I was considering getting an upgrade because something has happened to make my charging port difficult to use, but the differences with the newer models are so so minute and the cost so so high…

It just doesn’t make a lotta sense. Tho, I bet getting in here to change the port part myself would be very tricky.

Stelus42,

I did it myself with my note 9, which I would guess is about the same difficulty level. It was honestly not so bad, you just wanna really take your time and especially have a lot of patience with the screen. The other possibility though is that you have some compressed fluff deep inside the port. The only thing I’ve ever gotten deep enough to fish that stuff out is a sowing needle.

TheAlbatross, (edited )

Is it safe to do that with a needle? I’d imagine I’d want to avoid putting metal in there.

I also wonder if Samsung will fix it for free, but I imagine that’s unlikely.

Edit: Another user had a great suggestion of using a wooden toothpick and that worked like a charm!

Thorny_Insight,

Scratch the compacted pocket lint away from the charging port with a wooden toothpick and it’ll be good as new

TheAlbatross,

Buddy, you just cost Samsung $1.6k in sales in less than fifteen minutes. I hope you’re happy!

I know I am, thanks for the tip 😊

Thorny_Insight,

Glad I could be of assistance!

Legend says that if you smoke what came out you can hear colors.

pgetsos,
@pgetsos@kbin.social avatar

I had the S8+ and moved to an S23 Ultra, the difference is huge to be honest. The S9 surely is better in that regard thanks to the extra gb of RAM, but still you will see a big difference compared to an S24 Ultra (which doesn't mean that you phone isn't perfect for your needs as is)

OscarRobin,

The S9 was a significant improvement in performance etc over the S8 despite having basically the same design - my friend has an S9+ and he feels absolutely no push to get a new phone and I don’t blame him.

Zeroxxx,
@Zeroxxx@lemmy.my.id avatar

You can justify it all you can, but S23 is miles ahead of your S9 and S24 is even further.

Your phone’s screen is terrible nowadays… That is for a simple example.

jeena,
@jeena@jemmy.jeena.net avatar

I never said that a new phone istn’t technically ahead. I only said that for what I’m using it for - which is getting less and less - I find those upgrades very boring.

And I’m one of those people who waited in the line when the iPhone 3G started being sold, I almost lost my job for it because I abondened it to be in the line instead ^^

aluminium, to android in Snapchat's next lockscreen integration could be with Samsung

I may be wrong on that, I haven’t used Snapchat for 3 years but I remember the App always being pretty bad technically. Especially the high idle battery drain was wild. Giving such a company special permissions seems ripe for exploits to bypass the lockscreen.

httpjames,
@httpjames@sh.itjust.works avatar

It is a lot better now. Used to be absolutely horrible

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