9 ms·

I wish we had something like AirDrop to work between android and iOS devices.

jbverschoor 7y ago
There it is
jeroenhd 7y ago
Knowing Apple, such an effort would likely be destroyed by an army of lawyers the moment you bring out an app that provides such features. The Apple ecosystem is very closed and Apple will fight tooth and nail to keep it that way. Removing vendor lock-in would, after all, allow users to try switching to another brand without an enormous amount of hassle.
- michaelkw 7y ago
  Apple's open-source mDNS/DNS-SD implementation mDNSResponder underlies Android's NSD API, so I could one day see seamless interoperability over Wi-Fi Aware being a thing. I wouldn't bet on it happening, but given Windows (which ships with an mDNS/DNS-SD stack) and Android will be doing it before too long, I wouldn't be surprised to see Apple join the party.
  - kingosticks 7y ago
    I hope we'll one day see proper support for mdns in Android. Devs shouldn't have to go out of their way to use the special NSD API to provide mdns functionally in their apps. It should just work at the system level, which to be clear, it does not. It's been years and years in this state, so I can't be as positive.
  - neilalexander 7y ago
    Incidentally, Wi-Fi Aware is based heavily on AWDL but the Wi-Fi Alliance made a number of breaking protocol changes in the Wi-Fi Aware standard. This isn’t exactly Apple’s fault - it could have been interoperable.
- est31 7y ago
  > The Apple ecosystem is very closed and Apple will fight tooth and nail to keep it that way. In general you are right, Apple is very adamant about keeping full control over their ecosystem (and locking users in). They even sponsor a C compiler project so that they can avoid gcc. There are exceptions though, like AirPrint which is a marketing name for open standard technologies: https://wiki.debian.org/AirPrint https://wiki.debian.org/AirPrint
  - kitsunesoba 7y ago
    The switch to llvm/clang was about more than just avoiding gcc… it was also about filling holes in gcc’s functionality. Swift for example is heavily rooted in llvm/clang because at least at the time, llvm/clang was capable of a lot of things that gcc simply wasn’t, and the arcane nature of gcc’s innards made it unnecessarily difficult to add missing features to. Of course, GPLv3 poses issues too, but that’s only a single factor among several in Apple’s decision to deeply invest into llvm/clang.
scq 7y ago
https://snapdrop.net https://snapdrop.net works pretty well if you're on the same Wi-Fi network.
- spullara 7y ago
  AirDrop uses a sidechannel wifi network that doesn't expose the transfer to anyone else.
- chrisseaton 7y ago
  Not having to be in the same WiFi network is part of the whole point of AirDrop is it it?
- vetinari 7y ago
  Samsung devices support WiFi Direct, so you don't have to be on the same wifi network to send/receive files and the solution is standards-based. In theory, other Android devices support WiFi Direct too, maybe they just don't ship userspace apps for that, like Samsung does.
jumelles 7y ago
iMessage too. It's insane to me that this is still a problem.
- spullara 7y ago
  Anything that opens a network increases spam.
- filleokus 7y ago
  I guess you mean something that is first party on both platforms? Otherwise SMS-like communication is obviously a solved issue (Signal/WhatsApp/Messenger et al). Does Android have something similar to iMessage?
  - icelancer 7y ago
    >> Does Android have something similar to iMessage? No. The parent to your comment means open iMessage between Android and iOS.
    - filleokus 7y ago
      That's obviously never going to happen. The best we can hope for is probably something Googely with support for iOS
      - marios 7y ago
        Which is not going to happen because Google has multiple competing messaging apps.
        tpetry 7y ago
        And is regularly killing one to start two new ones.
  - yoz-y 7y ago
    > Does Android have something similar to iMessage? Kind of-ish. The RCS support is rolling out slowly. Of course there is a big difference in that RCS is not end to end encrypted. Also, there is nothing stopping Apple from implementing RCS as well, but I doubt they will do.
cprecioso 7y ago
They found code for kind of that in the new Google Play Services bundles ( https://www.androidpolice.com/2019/06/30/google-fast-sharing-android-beam-replacement/ https://www.androidpolice.com/2019/06/30/google-fast-sharing... ). They theorize in the article that it uses the same technologies as Airdrop, so they might be compatible - though I doubt it.
lucb1e 7y ago
I use https://dro.pm https://dro.pm a lot to share files or links. Since the links are super short (I just made https://dro.pm/a https://dro.pm/a --- note that it'll expire in 12 hours), you can just give the link to someone over the phone, put them in a presentation, or just share files independent of any operating system. I even use it even between my laptop and my phone fairly frequently, since the top suggestion on my phone keyboard in the browser is dro.pm and I just have to add a slash (long-press "m") and a letter. It's quicker to use dropm than to open a chat with myself or send myself an email or something. Of course this is just protected by https, and although it is source-available and the links are really gone after expiry (or when you edited it, the old contents are irretrievable), magic-wormhole is superior in that you don't have a trusted third party. For the cases where the other party doesn't have magic-wormhole installed, this might be helpful. This also alleviates the requirement of WebRTC for both parties to be online simultaneously.
- newscracker 7y ago
  Firefox Send (send.firefox.com) may be another option to share files, though the link would be longer than what you have with dro.pm. > magic-wormhole is superior in that you don't have a trusted third party. Well, magic-wormhole does need a trusted third party called Rendezvous Server. [1] [1]: https://magic-wormhole.readthedocs.io/en/latest/api.html#rendezvous-servers https://magic-wormhole.readthedocs.io/en/latest/api.html#ren...
  - lucb1e 7y ago
    If I understand it correctly, the rendezvous server is not a trusted third party, just a message relay. They wouldn't be able to read or modify your file transfer's contents.
newscracker 7y ago
Apple wouldn't allow a solution that's integrated within the OS, but if you want to share data between devices, AirDroid [1] is one such free service. It is available on multiple platforms, including Android, iOS, macOS, Windows and web. Use web.airdroid.com on devices/computers where you don't want to install the application. [1]: https://www.airdroid.com/ https://www.airdroid.com/

There it is

Knowing Apple, such an effort would likely be destroyed by an army of lawyers the moment you bring out an app that provides such features. The Apple ecosystem is very closed and Apple will fight tooth and nail to keep it that way. Removing vendor lock-in would, after all, allow users to try switching to another brand without an enormous amount of hassle.

michaelkw 7y ago
Apple's open-source mDNS/DNS-SD implementation mDNSResponder underlies Android's NSD API, so I could one day see seamless interoperability over Wi-Fi Aware being a thing. I wouldn't bet on it happening, but given Windows (which ships with an mDNS/DNS-SD stack) and Android will be doing it before too long, I wouldn't be surprised to see Apple join the party.
- kingosticks 7y ago
  I hope we'll one day see proper support for mdns in Android. Devs shouldn't have to go out of their way to use the special NSD API to provide mdns functionally in their apps. It should just work at the system level, which to be clear, it does not. It's been years and years in this state, so I can't be as positive.
- neilalexander 7y ago
  Incidentally, Wi-Fi Aware is based heavily on AWDL but the Wi-Fi Alliance made a number of breaking protocol changes in the Wi-Fi Aware standard. This isn’t exactly Apple’s fault - it could have been interoperable.
est31 7y ago
> The Apple ecosystem is very closed and Apple will fight tooth and nail to keep it that way. In general you are right, Apple is very adamant about keeping full control over their ecosystem (and locking users in). They even sponsor a C compiler project so that they can avoid gcc. There are exceptions though, like AirPrint which is a marketing name for open standard technologies: https://wiki.debian.org/AirPrint https://wiki.debian.org/AirPrint
- kitsunesoba 7y ago
  The switch to llvm/clang was about more than just avoiding gcc… it was also about filling holes in gcc’s functionality. Swift for example is heavily rooted in llvm/clang because at least at the time, llvm/clang was capable of a lot of things that gcc simply wasn’t, and the arcane nature of gcc’s innards made it unnecessarily difficult to add missing features to. Of course, GPLv3 poses issues too, but that’s only a single factor among several in Apple’s decision to deeply invest into llvm/clang.

scq 7y ago

https://snapdrop.net https://snapdrop.net works pretty well if you're on the same Wi-Fi network.

spullara 7y ago
AirDrop uses a sidechannel wifi network that doesn't expose the transfer to anyone else.
chrisseaton 7y ago
Not having to be in the same WiFi network is part of the whole point of AirDrop is it it?
vetinari 7y ago
Samsung devices support WiFi Direct, so you don't have to be on the same wifi network to send/receive files and the solution is standards-based. In theory, other Android devices support WiFi Direct too, maybe they just don't ship userspace apps for that, like Samsung does.

jumelles 7y ago

iMessage too. It's insane to me that this is still a problem.

spullara 7y ago
Anything that opens a network increases spam.
filleokus 7y ago
I guess you mean something that is first party on both platforms? Otherwise SMS-like communication is obviously a solved issue (Signal/WhatsApp/Messenger et al). Does Android have something similar to iMessage?
- icelancer 7y ago
  >> Does Android have something similar to iMessage? No. The parent to your comment means open iMessage between Android and iOS.
  - filleokus 7y ago
    That's obviously never going to happen. The best we can hope for is probably something Googely with support for iOS
    - marios 7y ago
      Which is not going to happen because Google has multiple competing messaging apps.
      - tpetry 7y ago
        And is regularly killing one to start two new ones.
- yoz-y 7y ago
  > Does Android have something similar to iMessage? Kind of-ish. The RCS support is rolling out slowly. Of course there is a big difference in that RCS is not end to end encrypted. Also, there is nothing stopping Apple from implementing RCS as well, but I doubt they will do.

cprecioso 7y ago

They found code for kind of that in the new Google Play Services bundles ( https://www.androidpolice.com/2019/06/30/google-fast-sharing-android-beam-replacement/ https://www.androidpolice.com/2019/06/30/google-fast-sharing... ). They theorize in the article that it uses the same technologies as Airdrop, so they might be compatible - though I doubt it.

lucb1e 7y ago

I use https://dro.pm https://dro.pm a lot to share files or links. Since the links are super short (I just made https://dro.pm/a https://dro.pm/a --- note that it'll expire in 12 hours), you can just give the link to someone over the phone, put them in a presentation, or just share files independent of any operating system. I even use it even between my laptop and my phone fairly frequently, since the top suggestion on my phone keyboard in the browser is dro.pm and I just have to add a slash (long-press "m") and a letter. It's quicker to use dropm than to open a chat with myself or send myself an email or something. Of course this is just protected by https, and although it is source-available and the links are really gone after expiry (or when you edited it, the old contents are irretrievable), magic-wormhole is superior in that you don't have a trusted third party. For the cases where the other party doesn't have magic-wormhole installed, this might be helpful. This also alleviates the requirement of WebRTC for both parties to be online simultaneously.

newscracker 7y ago
Firefox Send (send.firefox.com) may be another option to share files, though the link would be longer than what you have with dro.pm. > magic-wormhole is superior in that you don't have a trusted third party. Well, magic-wormhole does need a trusted third party called Rendezvous Server. [1] [1]: https://magic-wormhole.readthedocs.io/en/latest/api.html#rendezvous-servers https://magic-wormhole.readthedocs.io/en/latest/api.html#ren...
- lucb1e 7y ago
  If I understand it correctly, the rendezvous server is not a trusted third party, just a message relay. They wouldn't be able to read or modify your file transfer's contents.

newscracker 7y ago

Apple wouldn't allow a solution that's integrated within the OS, but if you want to share data between devices, AirDroid [1] is one such free service. It is available on multiple platforms, including Android, iOS, macOS, Windows and web. Use web.airdroid.com on devices/computers where you don't want to install the application. [1]: https://www.airdroid.com/ https://www.airdroid.com/