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ProductivityAppsTask Management

What are the best alternatives to Pushbullet?

12

Options
Considered

329

User
Recs.

Apr 30, 2022

Last
Updated

Here’s the Deal

The Best 1 of 11 OptionsWhy?

Best alternatives to Pushbullet	Price	Platforms	Publisher
95 KDE Connect	-	Linux, Android	KDE
84 AirDroid	-	Android / iOS / Windows / Web	Sand Studio
74 Join by joaoapps	-	Android, Windows, Linux, Mac, Chrome, Web	joaoapps
64 Telegram	-	Web, Android, iOS, Windows, Linux, macOS, BSD, Windows phone, UWP	Various companies affiliated with Telegram
-- Join.me	-	Windows, Mac, iOS, Android	-

KDE Connect

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Top Pro

Open source

Top Con

No iOS support

DeterminedDogoda's Experience

Got it from google play for phone and from microsoft store for win10 laptop. The phone client found the laptop client after it was installed on the phone as the 2nd device. Once they saw each other I tended to the permissions on the phone for the phone client. Couldn't figure out how to send the sms and do some of the things I wanted to do through the win10 client. Then tried looking in the taskbar tray and found it. Right click on the icon in the tray and you can select the device and then trigger the sync of the contacts. Once contacts are synced it is easy to manage/reply by rt clicking tray - selecting device and then selecting action. Worked pretty flawlessly overall -- just wasn't clear at first how to get the sms/file/image share bit going but once that is sorted it's perfect. Thanks so much for freeing me from the pushbullet wallet bleed (I wouldn't even consider paying 40$ a year, every year, forever for something of this nature -- it's really abusive pricing -- I really can't believe pushbullet chose a wallet bleed/revenue stream parasitic business model for an app of that nature). I will be donating to/buying from the KDE dev group. See More

Specs

Platforms:Linux, Android

Messaging systems:any

Top Pro

Free and easy to work with

Top Con

Non-KDE desktops may have issues

Peter J. Mello's Experience

You won't believe how good Connect is until you use it yourself, and even then you'll dwell from time to time on how it came to pass that the best piece of software that KDE produced in a quarter century ended up being a mobile phone connectivity app. I sure do. Let's take a quick inventory of things it does for me daily. *Quick and painless mirroring of notifications and SMS from phone to desktop, including SMS replies *Shared media playback and control. If I'm playing music on the computer, there will be a notification on the phone with play/pause/skip and volume, and if I'm playing something from the phone it comes through the computer speakers, complete with muting of either source when calls come in. *Truly solid remote input from device to device, one's keyboard and mouse/touchpad are just as easily used on the other. *Fantastic desktop locking anytime I walk away from the computer with my phone, to the point Microsoft should be on suicide watch for being so poor where KDE Connect is so polished. That's just what I use it for daily. The once or twice a week features are just as succulent I assure you. See More

Top Pro

Frees one from other parasitic, eternal wallet bleeding software

Good software is written once and well, and then sold with a perpetual license. Happy users are welcome to buy new versions in future years or continue using the one they already bought. Toxic business models feature CEO's explaining the juicy but unwarranted revenue stream they will create with gullible user's wallets by charging monthly/annual fees for software that should have been written once, paid for once. Thanks to KDE we can choose the former and are free to reject the latter. See More

ReasonableZaden's Experience

Never quite got KDE Connect to work properly on a non-KDE desktop (others did apparently) but for KDE it really integrates everything seamlessly from notifications, battery level, file transfer, universal cut-and-paste on the clipboard, multimedia control, and will even let your phone act as a touch control device to the desktop. See More

Top Pro

Works with Win10 Laptop and Android phone

FascinatingNehebkau's Experience

The best open source application for managing SMS, clipboard, notifications, "find my phone" and much more. And it's free. And it does not depend on any external services See More

Top Pro

Works perfectly with Gnome using the GSConnect extension

CourteousAsaruludu's Experience

It needs to be on the same network to make simple thing like notification & clipboard copy to work. That is ridilous. See More

HumbleEnlil's Experience

It was easy to pair, send files, control music, presentations, pointer or run commands. See More

10 Other Options Considered

AirDroid

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Top Pro

Premium is cheaper than Pushbullet Pro

As of 23/11/2015, the price for Pushbullet Pro is $39.99 yearly/$4.99 monthly while AirDroid Premium is only $19.99 yearly/$1.99 monthly/$38.99 biennially. See More

Top Con

Considerable delay when sending SMS messages via computer

Messages sent via computer can sometimes be delivered to the recipient with a delay of up to 10 minutes. Because of that holding a conversation might be difficult and it can needlessly drag out. See More

Peter J. Mello's Experience

AirDroid has always been the more ambitious of the two platforms, and in the beginning Pushbullet's more conservative approach and prioritization of simplicity over innovation wasn't so glaring, but now it is. I'll suffer the occasional hiccup/delay and need to repeat a command now and then for a product that easily permits ten times the number of remote interactions. KDE Connect still wins here even against AirDroid's swanky screen mirroring, but Pushbullet isn't even in the conversation anymore. See More

Specs

Platforms:Android / iOS / Windows / Web

Publisher:Sand Studio

Messaging systems:SMS / MMS / WhatsApp (etc)

Top Pro

It's a Swiss Army knife of cross-device functionality

In addition to SMS management and notification mirroring, it includes the ability to transfer files, URLs and clipboard, view through the camera lens of the Android device on another device, and completely control all functionality of a rooted Android device on a different device. See More

Top Con

No MMS Support

src/org/kde/kdeconnect/Helpers/TelephonyHelper.java See More

Top Pro

Straightforward SMS manager

In addition to allowing you to send and see incoming messages using an intuitive interface on a computer, the app also allows you to manage contacts. See More

Top Pro

Supports cross-device notification mirroring

SMS and app notifications as well as incoming call notifications are mirrored on the connected devices. See More

Join by joaoapps

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Top Pro

Share anything between devices

Share anything (text/clipboard, images, links, screenshots, etc.) and see everything you have recently shared from/between any of your devices. See More

Top Con

Complex settings

VivaciousPalioxis's Experience

It has buggy implementation of file transfer but in general still quite good. See More

Specs

Platforms:Android, Windows, Linux, Mac, Chrome, Web

Publisher:joaoapps

Top Pro

Chrome extension

Has a solid Chrome extension that has never lest me down. Easy to setup, easy to use, low on resources and VERY fast. See More

Top Con

No Firefox addons

Developer is unable to create addons because of restriction in Firefox API. See More

Dj “J” Puchalla II's Experience

The dev is very responsive to his forums and user posts with questions/seeking help. The PC to Android text messaging is absolutely amazing. There is nothing on this list that has the VALUE of Join by Joaoapps; easily the one app I'd happy to pay for! PS i literally made an account just to recommend this app. See More

Top Pro

Extremely reliable pushes on multiple devices (notifications, SMS, clipboard, and more)

Supports all of your devices and you can push anywhere, even to Mac. Text right from your computer. Receive mobile notifications on your desktop. Nice UI/UX. Talented, well-known, and trustworthy developer. See More

Top Con

No iOS version, yet

According to the developer's Google Plus page, an iOS version is being developed. But nothing as of yet (December 2017). See More

Justs's Experience

One of the best Android apps I have owned. It is one of first 5 apps I install on any new device. Powerful, fast, reliable and in active development. In fact, a huge update for the Chrome extension coming up in the near future. Can't say enough about Join. See More

Top Pro

Ad free and unlimited is a one time purchase as opposed to PushBullet's recurring membership fee.

I believe that Join is $4.99 for the pro account, but it used to be donation based starting at $0.99. When I go to the options for upgrade in the app, it still shows a donation based payment option. that could be becasue I am alegacy user or maybe the $4.99 is just a recommended amount. See More

SuaveOceanus's Experience

Super difficult if not impossible to set up See More

Top Pro

Locate your device

Another nice feature is the ability to locate all of your Join connected devices remotely (similar to Lookout or Google's Find My Device). See More

Top Pro

Integrates with Tasker

Integrates with Tasker for all sorts of crazy cool actions and options. See More

Top Pro

Encryption

Ability to encrypt your pushes between devices. See More

Top Pro

Push files and they are stored in Google Drive

Any files you push are stored in your own Google Drive so you always have access to them See More

Top Pro

Supports ringing the phone

Misplaced your phone somewhere? Have Join ring your phone at it's loudest volume and find it. See More

Top Pro

Universal Copy & Paste

Copy to clipboard on one device and paste it on another. See More

Telegram

Top Con

Not a direct alternative to Pushbullet

Does not support most advanced features Pushbullet has. It's basically a tool to send links from mobile to PC and vice-versa. See More

Top Pro

Media messaging

Videos, gifs, images, geolocation, and documents. See More

JoyousHumbaba's Experience

Awesome....... See More

Specs

Platforms:Web, Android, iOS, Windows, Linux, macOS, BSD, Windows phone, UWP

Publisher:Various companies affiliated with Telegram

End-to-end encryption:Secret chats

Groups:≤ 100,000

Top Con

Only "Secret Chat" messages are encrypted end to end

The only way to get end to end encryption using Telegram is to use the Secret Chat function, anything through the regular service is not encrypted. See More

Top Pro

Cloud data sync

Telegram synchronizes all data in the cloud for easy access to all your files and conversations on any device. See More

Top Con

Not open source

Telegram has an open API and protocol free for everyone, but the backend software is not open source. Therefore 100% privacy can not be evaluated. See More

Top Pro

Easily push files to other devices

Top Con

"Secret Chat" feature is not available for desktop client

Secret chats with end to end encryption are only available on mobile apps. See More

Top Pro

Beautiful UI

Very customizable with a lot of clean looking options. See More

Top Con

Can only be used with a phone number

It is not possible to activate and use Telegram by mail etc. You need a phone number. See More

Top Pro

Bot platform API

Telegram features its own API platform to easily create and share bots. See More

Top Con

Not fully open source

Telegram has an open API and protocol free for everyone, but the backend software is not open source. Therefore 100% privacy can not be evaluated. See More

Top Pro

Secure

Telegram uses an open source MTProto encryption protocol that provides complete end-to-end encryption for secret chats. To show off their confidence in the protocol the company behind Telegram has organized $200,000 and $300,000 challenges to break the encryption. So far there have been no winners. See More

Top Pro

Privacy focused

In addition to the end-to-end encryption that provides privacy to communications, the app also includes self destructing timers for chats, and the ability to permanently delete messages, yours and theirs, from your device. See More

Top Pro

Supergroups of up to 5000 people

Top Pro

Truly cross-platform and open API

Not only does Telegram have an Android, iOS and WP app, but it also has a client for desktops on Windows, OSX and Linux. Basically any device one owns, Telegram has a client that runs on it. See More

Join.me

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Top Pro

Multi-monitor support

Works well with multiple monitors. See More

Top Con

No Linux support

Only available on Windows and OSX. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Mac, iOS, Android

Top Pro

File sharing

Join.me allows for easy file transfers among participants. See More

Top Pro

Mobile support

Join.me supports iOS, Android and Kindle. See More

Top Pro

Up to 10 participants

10 people can view your screen. See More

Top Pro

Collaborative

You can give others the ability to control your screen. See More

Top Pro

Easy to set up

To start sharing, download and run a file from join.me. You'll be given a 9-digit code to share with anyone you wan't to be able to access your screen. See More

Top Pro

Joining a meeting is straightforward

To join you need only enter a 9-digit code on the join.me website, that you get from the person sharing. See More

MightyText

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Top Con

Pro version required to access all features

Features like message scheduling, themes, contact lists, message templates and SMS/e-mail sync require a $5/month ($40/yr) subscription. See More

Top Pro

Easy to get going as it uses your current phone number & SMS

MightyText uses SMS, so the people you message don't need to download the app in order for you to message them. This makes the transition from plain SMS to MightyText very easy and unlike Google Voice you keep your existing number. See More

BrightGersemi's Experience

The price was raised to 9.99 a month See More

Specs

Platforms:Android / Chrome / Safari / Firefox / Opera / IE

Publisher:MightyText: SMS Texting w/ PC - Free SMS Messaging

Messaging systems:SMS MMS

End-to-end encryption:no

Top Pro

Supports a wide variety of SMS apps

MightText includes support for Hangouts (default SMS app for Android 4.4), as well as Textra, Chomp SMS, Hello SMS, Easy SMS, GoSMS. See More

Top Pro

Read and send texts from all your Android devices + Web

MightyText syncs your SMS between your phone, tablet and the web interface. This means you can now read and send SMS from whatever device is most convenient at the time. See More

Top Pro

Allows scheduling SMS and MMS from computer

Top Pro

Allows pushing links, files, maps, and more from computer to phone

Top Pro

Backs up and syncs messages, notifications, contacts and media

MightyText syncs SMS and MMS as well as contacts and media from gallery between Android and web. See More

Crono

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Top Con

Subscription service

$1/mo or $10/year to use without caps on the number of messages/notifications. See More

Specs

Platforms:Android, Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Windows Store, macOS

Dmyst

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Bridge - mirror notifications (notification sync)

Top Pro

Privacy control

Fine tune privacy by hiding the content of any app when mirrored to your other devices. See More

TrustworthyPersephone's Experience

Easy to setup and intuitive See More

Specs

Platforms:Android, Web

Publisher:XitLabs

Messaging systems:All

End-to-end encryption:Yes

Top Pro

Clipboard sharing

You're clipboard is shared between your devices See More

Top Pro

Has fine grained control of which apps are allowed to mirror

Top Pro

Much faster in mirroring between devices than competitors

Top Pro

Battery charged notification

You can get notified on your other devices when a device reaches a certain battery charge or is fully charged. See More

Pushbullet

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