Controlling Your Phone Using Open Source Linux Applications

One-package solutions are something that everyone tends to look for nowadays. Offering ease of access to various data and functions performed separately by stand-alone devices is the motivation to build one-package solution gadgets.

This idea was, in fact, the driving force that moved our technology into creating smartphones, revolutionizing the industry of mobile phones.

There are though, still a lot of mobile phones widely being used that are not smart. The importance of these phones can be realized by the fact that even the mass production and the wide usage of smartphones with much more user-friendly and convenient interface, the older phones still are not obsolete.

Even the smartphones nowadays lack some functions that can only be performed by a computer. Moreover, there is still margin to combine more functions into a single solution. Due to this reason, various applications have been designed by developers to aid in controlling the functions of a mobile phone through a computer, consequently combining the computer and the mobile phone into one.

And to do that, a user does not even necessarily need a smartphone as this can be done to any phone capable of connecting to a computer through a USB cable or Bluetooth.

The aforementioned developed applications to control mobile phones through computers or on the Linux operating system.

Linux is an open source operating system and a software development platform. Because it is an open source system, it attracts the eyes of every software developer who is otherwise not capable enough to launch independent software, applications, and operating systems.

Consequently, there are some various open source applications developed based on the Linux platform that can control the functions of a phone when connected to them through a USB cable. The functions like making a phone call and sending a text message are then accessible on the computer, as the Linux-based mobile controlling app acts as a bridge between the mobile and the computer.

These apps gained popularity at an exponential rate, which shows how useful they are in various communication setups.

Many apps have since been designed to aid in this matter, and various software structures follow different communication and security protocols to do this task.

Some of the most popular and most widely used Open Source Linux based mobile control applications are discussed below.

GNOME Phone Manager

Starting with the most widely used applications, we have the GNOME Phone Manager app, which sends SMS using a computer through the phone.

A USB connection between the phone and the computer is required. After initialization, it automatically connects to your phone, and it has just four options, “Send message,”“preferences,” “about” and “quit.”

You can learn more about this from their Official Site from here.

If the automatic detection fails, the user can manually direct the application to the port where the phone is connected. On the other hand, the app can be set up to pop a notification up every time the connected phone receives a text message.

The only problem is that the contacts in the phone are not accessible by the application, which is why the numbers are needed to either be memorized or looked up somewhere.

Wammu

Wammu, also known as Gammu, is a more robust application allowing more freedom to the user and a more efficient experience. It accesses the text messages, contacts, calendar and other data on the phone.

Wammu, just like GNOME, detects first hand the connected phone, and then once the connection is established, it retrieves the data from the phone and congregates it into a tree where every node represents a unique class of data and functions.

This allows the user to manage the application more easily. If the phone supports the functions, everything is put into the right place with ease, but in support-related issues, on some occasions, text messages may appear jumbled up, and contacts may appear without a name label.