Comment 28 for bug 1798400

The bug is still there as of LibO 7.3.x. Up in comment 12 (https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=120663#c12) there is a nice analysis of the underlying problem why the remote cannot work.

Established that, I think that most users go used to the fact that the remote functionality does not work in linux. Personally, I have uninstalled the android app on the phone so I do not have an unfortunate reminder about it. In fact, the real issue is probably the advertisement of a functionality that is not there.

For the time being I suggest disabling the remote-via-bluetooth functionality in linux and closing the bug by simply saying that the remote via bluetooth cannot be supported on linux where there are evidently issues that span other software pieces such as the bluetooth stack and pulse audio. To the best of my understanding, these involve the hijacking of the default rfcomm channel by pulse audio before it even needs it and the lack of a standard approach to let other applications find a free channel to use and advertise it to their counterparts.

Alternatively (but I would not consider this a good solution), the configuration options could be enhanced to add the possibility to choose a bluetooth channel in libreoffice and in the mobile phone application, so that the user can manually work around the fact that the predefined channel is locked by some other application.

As a final point, note that even if the remote-via-wifi may seem a good alternative, in fact in most cases it is practically useless. In most cases, presentations will not be given at a place where you control the network, but at sites with site-provided wifi, such as universities, schools, conference places, business sites, etc. All these locations tend to have wifi deployments that block stuff on the ports used by impress remote.