Pushbullet Alternatives, Chosen by What You Actually Used It For

The useful question here is not which app is the best Pushbullet alternative. It is what you used Pushbullet for. It pushed links and notes between a phone and a computer, sent files, mirrored Android notifications onto the desktop, let you answer texts from a keyboard, and shared a clipboard between devices. Almost nothing replaces all of that, and most of those jobs already have a free answer sitting on your machine. This page splits them up.

Which Pushbullet job you want back decides your replacement

Pushbullet bundled several unrelated things into one app, which is exactly why a single replacement is so hard to name. Work out which of these you actually miss, then read that section and skip the rest.

• Sending a link or a line of text from a phone to a computer is the Pushbullet job with the most free replacements. Every major browser can send a page to your other signed-in devices, and a message to yourself in a chat app does the same for plain text.
• Sending an actual file between a phone and a computer is the Pushbullet job that local network transfer tools now do better. LocalSend and PairDrop move the file directly between the two devices, so nothing has to be uploaded anywhere first.
• Seeing an Android phone's notifications on the desktop is the Pushbullet job that Windows took over itself. Phone Link ships with Windows 11 and mirrors a linked Android phone's notifications with nothing extra to install.
• Answering text messages from a computer keyboard is the Pushbullet job with a different answer on every platform. Windows Phone Link does it, a Mac does it for an iPhone with no setup at all, and KDE Connect covers Android everywhere else.
• Copying on one device and pasting on another is the Pushbullet job with the least built-in support anywhere. Apple's Universal Clipboard does it between Apple devices only, and an Android phone with a Windows PC has no equivalent that ships with either system.
• Getting a photo off a phone and onto a computer ready to paste is worth separating from general file transfer. A file transfer tool leaves a file in a folder that you then have to find and attach, which is two extra steps when all you wanted was the picture in a document.
• This page does not tell you whether to leave Pushbullet, and it does not need to. Every answer below is about the job rather than the vendor, so it holds whether you have already moved off it or are only looking around.

Camera to Clipboard puts a phone photo on the computer clipboard

One job on that list is worth pulling out on its own, because it comes up more often than the rest and because a general file transfer tool answers it badly. You have a photo on your phone and you want it inside a document on your computer.

• A photo sent from a phone with Camera to Clipboard lands on the computer's clipboard rather than in a folder. Press Ctrl + V on Windows or Cmd + V on a Mac and the picture is in the document. There is no file to hunt for and no attach step.
• Camera to Clipboard sends the photo straight from the phone to the computer over your local Wi-Fi, with nothing uploaded. The photo never reaches a cloud service, so it also works on a network with no internet connection and on your phone's own hotspot.
• Camera to Clipboard works from an iPhone or an Android phone to a Windows PC or a Mac. That includes the two pairings Apple and Google both leave out, which are an iPhone with a Windows PC and an Android phone with a Mac.
• Camera to Clipboard does not mirror notifications and does not send text messages from your computer. It replaces one of Pushbullet's jobs and not the others, so pair it with Phone Link or KDE Connect if you want those back too.
• Pasting a phone photo into Word or an email is the job Camera to Clipboard was built around. There is a step by step walkthrough in the guide to pasting a phone photo into Word or email.

The whole setup is four steps:

1. Install Camera to Clipboard on the phone and the desktop app on the computer.
2. Pair once by scanning a QR code, which takes about ten seconds.
3. Take or pick a photo on the phone and send it.
4. Press Ctrl + V, or Cmd + V on a Mac.

Free to download and try on both ends.

Chrome and Firefox send a link straight to your computer

This is the job people underestimate, because the replacement is already installed and nobody advertises it. Signing into the same browser on the phone and the computer gives you a send button and nothing else to set up.

• Chrome sends the page open on your phone to your computer once you are signed into Chrome on both devices. Open the share menu on the page, choose to send it to your devices, and pick the computer. The link arrives there as a notification.
• Firefox sends a tab from a phone to a computer with Send Tab to Device, once a Mozilla account is signed in on both. The tab lands in the other copy of Firefox and opens with one click.
• Safari puts every tab open on your iPhone into the Mac's tab list already, so there is nothing to send. Both devices need to be signed into the same Apple account with Safari syncing on. The page is usually there before you think to push it.
• Messaging yourself in a chat app is the simplest way to move a link or a paragraph of text from a phone to a computer. WhatsApp, Telegram and Signal each have a conversation with yourself, and whatever you put in it appears on every device you are signed into.
• Emailing yourself a link needs no new account and works between any phone and any computer. It is slower to read than a notification, it survives every platform change, and it is still searchable a year later.
• None of these ways of sending a link costs anything, which is why they are worth trying before you install a Pushbullet replacement. There is no subscription, no new account beyond one you already have, and no background app to keep running.

LocalSend replaces Pushbullet for sending a file across

Once you are moving a real file rather than a link, the distinction that matters is whether the file leaves your own network. Local transfer tools keep it between the two devices, which is faster and asks for no account.

• LocalSend sends a file directly between a phone and a computer over your own Wi-Fi, with no account and no upload. It runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS, and the two devices find each other on the network by themselves.
• LocalSend is free and open source, which is the main reason it keeps being recommended as a Pushbullet replacement. No file passes through a server the project runs, and there is nothing counting how much you send.
• PairDrop does the same local file transfer in a browser tab, with nothing at all to install. That suits a computer you do not own or cannot install software on, and the Snapdrop alternatives guide compares it with the installed tools.
• A Wi-Fi network that isolates its clients blocks LocalSend and every other local transfer tool at once. Guest Wi-Fi, hotel Wi-Fi and plenty of office networks stop devices talking to each other directly. The fix is to put both devices on your phone's hotspot, which is a small private network nobody else is filtering.
• AirDrop covers phone to computer file transfer inside Apple's own devices and nowhere else. An iPhone to a Mac is one tap. An iPhone to a Windows PC is not something AirDrop can do at all, and the AirDrop for Windows guide covers what to use instead.
• Quick Share moves files between an Android phone and a Windows PC once you install Google's Windows app. It is Android's answer to AirDrop, and like AirDrop it stays inside its own world: it does not reach an iPhone or a Mac.

Windows Phone Link mirrors Android notifications and messages

This is the part of Pushbullet that Windows absorbed. If you are on Windows with an Android phone, the replacement is already on the machine and you only have to link the phone once.

• Phone Link ships with Windows 11 and shows a linked Android phone's notifications on the desktop. You pair the phone once through the Link to Windows app, and after that its notifications appear in the Phone Link window and in the Windows notification area.
• Phone Link lets you read and send an Android phone's text messages from the PC keyboard. The messages go out through the phone's own SIM and number, so there is no separate service or second number involved.
• Phone Link also shows an Android phone's recent photos and lets you drag one onto the desktop. That panel is the part people report as flaky, and the Phone Link photos guide covers why it stops loading and what fixes it.
• Phone Link's iPhone support covers calls, messages and contacts, and does not include the photos panel. Mirroring one app's notifications from another app is limited on an iPhone in any case, because Apple does not allow it, so this is a platform rule rather than a setting you have missed.
• Phone Link needs a Microsoft account signed in on the PC and the Link to Windows app on the phone. Both are free, and on many Samsung phones Link to Windows is already installed as part of the system.
• A Mac already sends and receives an iPhone's text messages with nothing extra installed. Signing the Mac into the same Apple account as the iPhone puts Messages and phone calls on the Mac, which is Apple's equivalent of what Phone Link does for Android on Windows.
• macOS has no equivalent of Phone Link for an Android phone. Apple ships nothing that pairs a Mac with Android, and Google ships nothing for macOS, which is where the open source option below earns its place.

KDE Connect is the closest thing to a whole Pushbullet replacement

If you want one app that covers most of Pushbullet's list rather than a different answer per job, this is the one. It asks more of you at setup than anything else on this page, and it gives back the most.

• KDE Connect pairs an Android phone with a computer and covers notifications, clipboard, files and texts in a single app. It is free and open source, and it is the closest match anyone has to the shape of what Pushbullet did.
• KDE Connect shares a clipboard between an Android phone and a computer, which nothing built into either system does. Copy on one and paste on the other. On newer Android versions you push the clipboard across with a button instead of it syncing on its own, because Android stops apps reading the clipboard in the background.
• KDE Connect is at its best on Linux, and its Windows and macOS builds are rougher. The project grew out of the KDE desktop, so that is where the integration is deepest. It does run on Windows and macOS, and it is worth setting expectations before you install it there.
• KDE Connect keeps everything on your local network and involves no account of any kind. The phone and the computer pair directly with each other, so there is nothing to sign up for and nothing uploaded on the way.
• KDE Connect has an iPhone app, but it does much less than the Android one. iOS does not allow an app to read other apps' notifications or watch the clipboard in the background, so the iPhone version cannot offer the two features people most want from it.
• KDE Connect needs both devices on the same network, so a network that isolates its clients breaks it. Same limitation as LocalSend and every other local tool, and the same fix, which is to put both devices on the phone's hotspot.

Apple's Universal Clipboard works only between Apple devices

Copy here and paste there was one of Pushbullet's neatest tricks, and it is the job with the least built-in support left. What you get depends entirely on which two devices you own.

• Universal Clipboard copies on an iPhone and pastes on a Mac with nothing installed, as long as both are signed into the same Apple account. Both devices need Bluetooth and Wi-Fi turned on, Handoff enabled, and they have to be within a few metres of each other.
• Universal Clipboard fails silently, so a paste that comes back empty on the Mac is its normal failure rather than a broken setup. There is no error and no progress indicator anywhere. The usual cures are toggling Bluetooth off and on, or turning Handoff off and on, and nothing tells you which of the two was at fault.
• Universal Clipboard does not reach a Windows PC or an Android phone at all. It is one of Apple's Continuity features, which means it is built to work between Apple's own devices and is not offered anywhere else.
• Windows has a clipboard history that syncs between PCs, not between a phone and a PC. Press the Windows key and V to see it. Turning on syncing shares it with your other Windows machines on the same Microsoft account, and no phone enters into it.
• Copying an image between a phone and a computer is a harder problem than copying text, and many clipboard tools handle text only. A line of text is small and every system stores it the same way, and an image is neither, which is why the picture is usually the thing that does not arrive.

Every Pushbullet job has a different best replacement

This is the whole page in one place. Find the row for the thing you used Pushbullet for. The rest of that row tells you what to use, where it runs, what it asks you to sign up for and what it costs.

Your Pushbullet alternative is two small tools, not one big one

Nothing on this page does everything Pushbullet did, and hunting for the one app that does is what makes this search so frustrating. Two or three free tools cover the whole list, and which two depends on what you own.

• An Android phone with a Windows PC needs Phone Link and one file transfer tool, and nothing more. Phone Link covers notifications, texts and recent photos, and LocalSend carries the files that Phone Link will not.
• An iPhone with a Mac needs almost nothing installed, because Apple's own features already cover most of the list. Universal Clipboard, AirDrop, Safari tab syncing and Messages on the Mac between them replace everything except a reliable way to paste a photo.
• An iPhone with a Windows PC is the pairing with the least built-in support and the one that needs the most help. Phone Link gives you calls and texts but no photos, AirDrop gives you nothing at all here, and files need a transfer tool of some kind.
• An Android phone with a Mac has no first-party answer at all, which is why KDE Connect is the practical choice there. Apple ships nothing for Android and Google ships nothing for macOS, so the open source option is doing all of the work.
• If the one thing you keep pushing across is a photo you are about to paste, Camera to Clipboard is the app to install. It does that single job on every combination of phone and computer, and it finishes in a paste instead of a file in a folder.
• A wider roundup of phone to computer transfer apps is worth reading before you commit to one. We compare what each of them is good at in the best phone to PC transfer apps guide.

Common questions about Pushbullet alternatives

What is the best Pushbullet alternative?
There is no single one, because Pushbullet did several unrelated jobs. For links and short text, your browser's own send to device feature does it with nothing extra installed. For files, LocalSend sends them over your local network with no account. For Android notifications and texting from the desktop, Windows Phone Link does both. KDE Connect covers most of the list at once if you are willing to install it on both devices.

Is there a Pushbullet alternative that mirrors notifications on a Mac?
For an Android phone, KDE Connect is the practical answer, because macOS has no built-in equivalent to Windows Phone Link. For an iPhone, much of it is already there. Signing the Mac into the same Apple account puts calls and messages on the Mac, and recent macOS versions can show iPhone notifications through iPhone Mirroring where that feature is available.

Can I still copy on my phone and paste on my computer without Pushbullet?
Between Apple devices, yes, with nothing installed. Universal Clipboard copies on an iPhone and pastes on a Mac when both are near each other and signed into the same Apple account. Between an Android phone and a Windows PC there is no equivalent that ships with either system, so KDE Connect is the usual answer. If what you are moving is a photo rather than text, Camera to Clipboard sends it from either phone straight to the Windows or Mac clipboard.

Does Camera to Clipboard replace Pushbullet?
Only for one of its jobs. Camera to Clipboard sends photos, videos and scanned documents from a phone to a computer's clipboard over your local Wi-Fi, ready to paste. It does not mirror notifications, it does not send text messages from the desktop, and it does not sync typed text between devices.