KonanLink is a service that allows users to search for and find whatever file they need, wherever they are and through whichever device they’re using. Using a Mac or Windows PC as a server of sorts, KonanLink makes it easy searching months’ worth of emails, finding that one image you need to give to the designer when your laptop has died. KonanLink is like your own private cloud, and with a free service as well as a more advanced premium service on offer, there’s a lot on offer. Easy to setup and simple to use, let’s take a closer look at what KonanLink has to offer. Below is a nice video that gives you the sort of idea KonanLink’s team were going for.
Getting started with KonanLink is a little bit different than with other Anroid apps, as you need to download the program to your computer first. All the relevant info can be found on their website. Once you’ve got it downloaded, you need to sign up for an account, which is not only free, but simple with just an email and password required.
You’ll need to do the same on your Android device as well, you can download the Android app from the Play Store here.
When I signed in to the app for the first time I was happy that KonanLink asked if I wanted to include smartphone files. I didn’t, so I chose to exclude them. After all, people often like to keep things at least a little separated. I was a little skeptical at first, but when I searched for the term ‘xperia’ on the Android app, I certainly came across what I was looking for on my Mac Mini.
What was impressive about KonanLink here was that it returned files that even had the word ‘xperia’ within them, rather than just filenames. I wanted to try looking for a photo of some fancy headphones to show a friend, so I searched for the word ‘grain’.
Here, I can see all of the images that I had on my Mac back home, when clicking on one I got a neat little warning letting me know I was going to download something and therefore use data. I have unlimited data so no problem for me, but it was nice to see this included.
Sure enough, after a little while the image I was looking for from my Mac back at home was available on my smartphone.
One thing that I was unable to test, as I use Gmail online exclusively, was the ability to search your Inbox no matter where you are. This is a feature that business users will appreciate perhaps more than I, as many of them use Outlook and KonanLink searches Outlook with no issue.
I mentioned that KonanLink was like a private cloud for your own files, well that’s true, but you can also search Drive and Dropbox from KonanLink, too.
KonanLink is a nifty Android app and service that I was honestly fairly skeptical about at first, but it works brilliantly. What it basically does is turn your PC or Mac into a file server of sorts and then allows you to connect to any device registered with your account. For me, KonanLink will fill in the gaps that Dropbox and Google Photos misses out on. I don’t use Dropbox for much besides photos and a few apps on Android, so much of my work resides on my Mac Mini. KonanLink can happily fill in this gap for me, and if you’re not looking to retrieve anything older than three months it’s free to use. A Premium account however, is available for those that want to be able to search older files and emails. Overall, I was pretty impressed with it, and I’m sure it will come in handy over time.
Ratings
- Speed (4/5) – I found that KonanLink was fairly quick, opening files is a little slower, but searches are returned just fine.
- Theme (4/5) – A little more Material Design would look good, but there’s not much to complain about and different file types are easily distinguished from others.
- Features (4.5/5) – A great way of filling in the gaps that cloud storage often leaves, KonanLink just works and I am surprised at how easy it is to use and how hassle free everything is.
- Overall (4/5) – KonanLink is easy to use, it does exactly what it says it does and it’s free to use depending on what you need it for.
Pros
- Quick and easy to setup without any messing around or lengthy setup procedure.
- Works with Windows as well as Mac, so it should be suitable for most users.
- Allows searching of emails as well as all file types including images, documents and PDFs etc.
- Searches popular cloud services as well as local files on your computer even when you’re on 3G/4G, you do not need to be connected to the same network.
Cons
- Premium account doesn’t seem to offer more than just searching older than three months.
- Better way of handling file types on Android, like using the system default would be helpful.
All-in-all, I was pleasantly surprised by just how good KonanLink was, and it all comes together nicely to offer one of the easiest ways to search a remote computer I’ve come across. At least where an Android device is concerned. In fact, KonanLink has made me rethink whether or not I need to trust Google with so much data, knowing that I can simply search my Mac from wherever I am.