Feature request: Desktop audio for cellular phone calls
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Summary
I'd like Ubuntu Touch to support making and receiving ordinary cellular phone calls while using a Linux desktop as the microphone, speakers/headset and user interface.
As a Linux desktop user, I often need to make phone calls while working.
For example, I may have:
a property listing open in my browser,
my calendar open,
email and notes on screen,and need to call an estate agent.
I'd like to remain at my desk using my desktop microphone and headphones while the phone itself places and receives the cellular call.
This would allow me to continue working, take notes, create calendar events and browse information during the call without holding the phone.
Desired behaviour
From the desktop:
View contacts and recent calls.
Dial a phone number.
Receive incoming call notifications.
Answer or reject calls.
Use the desktop microphone and speakers/headset for the conversation.
End the call.The phone would remain responsible for the cellular connection (SIM/VoLTE), but the desktop would act as the audio endpoint and user interface.
Existing solutions
Windows Phone Link offers similar functionality for Windows users.
On Linux, KDE Connect provides notifications and SMS integration, but does not currently provide desktop audio for ordinary cellular calls.
Why Ubuntu Touch?
Unlike Android applications, Ubuntu Touch has control over the operating system and telephony stack, making this seem like a feature that may be technically achievable as part of the platform rather than as a third-party app.
I believe this would be a distinctive feature for Ubuntu Touch and improve integration with Linux desktops.
I appreciate this is a significant feature request rather than a small enhancement, but I'd be interested to know whether the maintainers think it is technically feasible or aligns with the project's long-term goals.
(Yes, I used AI to generate the above text. Words aren't my thing, sue me :P)
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the trouble with using a talking electric heater as an advocacy helper is that it is making your thoughts look likely without proper basis.
In the case of your post, it is asking to Ubuntu Touch to provide an alternative to a Windows software called 'Windows phone link'. Why is this inappropriate ? because it is a desktop software. Ubuntu Touch is a phone software. Ubuntu Touch do not aim at being an alternative to Fedora, Debian Ubuntu...
If KDE Connect find this functionality out of scôpe, if no well known software phone exists on Linux that can do that with an Android phone, that's for a reason: it's because it's a marginal need for a market that is - if one takes 3% of the 1 billion users of desktop OS - about 30 million users.
If and when Linux desktop developers write such a software that can connect to an Android phone to do something equivalent to what you are asking, now it could be the moment to study why an UT phone could not be used instead of an Android phone.
I'd say that this hypothetical problem could probably be solved then entirely at the linux kernel level without any Ubuntu Touch application software. I think that the Ms software relies probably only on 'standard' Bluetooth features.
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