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All of these "alternatives to airdop" don't seem to actually do what airdrop does, which is create an ad-hoc wireless connection. Airdrop isn't just a nice UI
by cmiller1 3y ago
All of these "alternatives to airdop" don't seem to actually do what airdrop does, which is create an ad-hoc wireless connection. Airdrop isn't just a nice UI for sending files between people, it allows a wi-fi speed transfer between two devices that aren't connected to an existing network of that speed.
- asadalt 3y agothis also gives you wifi speed actually. thanks for webrtc.
- menacingly 3y agoMany things give you wifi speed, if you're connected to wifi. With Airdrop, if you are on the moon and meet a stranger there who also has an iphone, you can perform the high-speed transfer of large files.
- checkyoursudo 3y agoWill an iPhone work in a vacuum?
- ascagnel_ 3y agoYou’re kidding, but a working phone was found on the ground after the panel blew out of the Boeing a few weeks ago. https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/8/24029806/boeing-737-max-9-iphone-found-working https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/8/24029806/boeing-737-max-9-... I don’t think there’s anything in a phone that’d stop its core functions in a vacuum. The human trying to use it, not so much.
- checkyoursudo 3y agoI was kind of kidding, but I was also kind of intrigued by the idea. My instinct is that it would work in a vacuum, but that is just a gut feeling. But I also could not think of why one could not.
- project2501 3y agoOverheating could be a problem. cooling by thermal radiation alone maybe isn't enough
- asadalt 3y agowouldn't it use bluetooth in that case? Or does it create adhoc wifi connections somehow?
- cmiller1 3y agoIt will use bluetooth for discovery and then establish an adhoc wifi connection between the two devices.
- vifon 3y agoSo Wi-Fi Direct?
- fidotron 3y agoISTR around something like the Galaxy Nexus Google doing demos of beaming files between devices via WiFi Direct after having exchanged info with an NFC tap. But that was just before they decided everything had to go via their cloud. Curiously if you used a London bus in around 2005 with bluetooth on you would experience a lot of files being sent to you via ad hoc networks.
- tomasff 3y agoI think the modern alternative is Nearby Share which works via BLE or WiFi with Android / Windows / ChromeOS
- chasil 3y agoWith WiFi direct, the devices must pair in a manner similar to an initial Bluetooth pairing. Apple simplifies this stage.
- j1elo 3y agoApple usually does excellent integrations between their devices. But I haven't used AirDrop so I'm not familiar with how it works: in order to create an ad-hoc wireless connection, if the devices were already connected to some wifi access point, are they temporarily disconnected for the duration of the ad-hoc connection? If not, I'd guess that Apple devices maybe come with 2 WiFi adapters inside?
- pzmarzly 3y agoAirPlay and Miracast both rely on WiFi (in case of Miracast it's WiFi Direct, for AirPlay I'm not sure), so it's not uncommon for WiFi chips to maintain 2 connections at once.
- asylteltine 3y agoNo they don’t disconnect from WiFi and as of the latest iOS you can now leave airdrop radius and it will use the internet to continue transfer. Its magic
- dartos 3y agoIIRC Apple uses some proprietary radio protocol (or maybe it’s just Bluetooth) to discover and communicate with nearby Apple products.
- nsagent 3y agoIt uses Bonjour [1], which has an LGPL reimplementation named Avahi [2] [1]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonjour_(software) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonjour_(software) [2]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avahi_(software) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avahi_(software)
- d1sxeyes 3y agoFor the sake of being picky, Bonjour is not a radio protocol (Layer 1), it’s a set of tools which enable zero config networking (Layer 2/3)
- rollcat 3y agoThis. Airdrop is actually viable for transferring huge files, like RAW photos or ProRes footage. I've had video engineering professionals ask me if it's viable to implement Airdrop support in something like a camera or a recorder, not because it's pretty or doesn't need cables, but because it would save them time in a media workflow (they are busy people).
- Obscurity4340 3y agoResilio Sync's pretty fast and less fussy than AirDrop, I also don't like keeping AirDrop running chronically
- voisin 3y ago> I also don't like keeping AirDrop running chronically Why?
- mckn1ght 3y agoIt’s better now that you can choose only to expose it to contacts, and only enable it for “everyone” for a limited time. I seem to remember in the past you could leave “everyone” enabled indefinitely, evident anytime you stood in a crowd.
- bananapub 3y ago> I seem to remember in the past you could leave “everyone” enabled indefinitely, evident anytime you stood in a crowd. er yes, Apple seemingly eliminated the "everyone/forever" option because it was being used to slightly-anonymously[0] spread stuff the chinese government didn't like [1] 0: https://arstechnica.com/security/2024/01/hackers-can-id-unique-apple-airdrop-users-chinese-authorities-claim-to-do-just-that/ https://arstechnica.com/security/2024/01/hackers-can-id-uniq... 1: https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/09/apple-limits-airdrop-everyone-option-to-10-minutes-in-china/ https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/09/apple-limits-airdrop-every...
- hmottestad 3y ago
- dotancohen 3y ago> create an ad-hoc wireless connection. Every Android device I've used has had "Send via Bluetooth" functionality built in. Is the WiFi connection just significantly faster or does it provide other additional benefits?
- Angostura 3y agoSignificantly faster
- chasil 3y agoFor large files, less power will be used for WiFi versus Bluetooth.
- albert180 3y agoYou would need to use "Nearby Share" for that. But it's also Standard with Androif
- crazygringo 3y agoWiFi is massively faster. Apple Watches used to update over Bluetooth and it would take hours, literally. And someone discovered a trick to turn off Bluetooth to force it to update over Wi-Fi, and then the download took just minutes.
- EasyMark 3y agomost wifi is probably 2 orders of magnitude faster than bluetooth transfer. Syncthing is great if you're looking for multiplatform syncing of files. It takes a little playing around though, the interface is not what I would call beginner friendly, but it's not too bad, and has been very dependable in my experience
- hulium 3y agoYou can create a hotspot and start a HTTP server. Scan a QR code to connect to the hotspot, then a QR code for the file URL. It's easy and works with any device with Wifi access. For the server, on Android I use "Share via HTTP". On desktop running a lightweight HTTP server is easy too. Edit: Apparently that sounded complicated, here is how I can share a file from my phone to any other phone in the same Wifi. - Click Share -> Share with HTTP. - The app opens and shows a QR code. - Other person scans the code. Their browser opens the file and they can do whatever they want with it. If you have no Wifi: - Open QR code for hotspot - Other person scans QR code for hotspot, then for file. If you still think it is too complicated, surely there is an opportunity create a simpler UI! From a technology perspective it does not have to be complicated.
- jbverschoor 3y agoI'll just tap share -> person
- twosdai 3y agoCan't agree more. Users don't want to run a server or figure any of that out. There is a person near them and they want to share a file quickly.
- hulium 3y agoI am not sure you understand. You click share, then Share via HTTP, the other person scans the QR code, they have the file. Setting up the server is no effort at all. Only if you are outside without Wifi you have to do another step, setting up a Wifi hotspot, but that is not hard. And in most situations I have been in both devices were in the same network anyways.
- jbverschoor 3y agoBut that's 80% of why AirDrop is so great. Exchanging files/photos/videos when you're not home and sometimes with strangers / acquaintances.
- moritzwarhier 3y agoI admit the convenience is not the same, but this was already possible with my first Android phone (2011/12ish). There was an app called "Wifi File Transfer" which would expose a web UI in the local network to download and upload files to the phone's storage. First I only used it to upload music to my phone (faster than USB1.1 or even USB2). Then I found out it also works fine when creating a WiFI AP/Hotspot and allowing other peers to connect to it.
- amelius 3y agoSo Apple.com has built a connection that doesn't adhere to TCP/IP standards. Great engineering, people!
- vladvasiliu 3y agoHow do you figure that? I don't know anything about how this works, but ad-hoc Wi-Fi connections are a thing, and they use good ol' TCP/IP. It just means you don't connect to some pre-existing Wi-Fi network managed by some third party (from the exchanging terminals' perspective).
- tiagod 3y ago1. How do you know this? 2. Even if it's the case, why would it be wrong if it's the best choice for the requirements? (incredibly simple, fast, reliable local file sharing). TCP/IP isn't the end-all be-all.
- geor9e 3y agoIt's a peer-to-peer wireless connection that doesn't go over the internet at all. Why does it matter (and how would you even know) if they use TCP/IP?
- spieglt 3y agoMine does! https://github.com/spieglt/flyingcarpet https://github.com/spieglt/flyingcarpet
- zipping1549 3y agoHaven't tried yet but this is really cool. Nice job.
- luckyshot 3y agoGreat project! Thank you for building it. If the UI was simpler and more "Apple-like" (hate to say this) I could convince my non-tech coworkers/family/friends to use it. Also, could you auto detect the other peer's OS? You could skip an extra step and UI element. Do you need it to know which WiFi bandwidth to use?
- spieglt 3y agoThank you! Yeah, obviously the UI is a weak part. I'd like to improve it eventually but as a one-person project I don't want it to have as minimal of an interface as AirDrop. With all the ways transfers can go wrong, I want that information to be in the user's face so they can submit issues and I can help debug easily. And no, it can't detect anything about the other device until they're on a WiFi network together, and that can't happen until it knows the peer's OS because it has to know whether it or the peer should be hosting the hotspot. Windows has precedence, then Linux, then Android. (The iOS version doesn't need to know the peer's OS because iOS and macOS can't stand up a hotspot programmatically anymore, so it always has to join.)
- albert180 3y agosnapdrop.net does. It works locally in your network Peer2Peer
- geor9e 3y agoIt doesn't do what airdrop does, although it is a step better than Sharedrop, in that it doesn't require the data be sent over the internet. But it still has a lot of extra hassle that airdrop doesn't have. If you're away from home, you first have to enable Mobile Hotspot to create a wifi network (and pay your carrier for the right, since it's usually locked down in Android), then manually connect your other device to that wifi. Airdrop skips all of that. If Airdrop is open, it's scanning via bluetooth for another device with Airdrop enabled (it doesnt even have to be open). Then they instantly agree on an ad-hoc network and connect, all invisibly to the user. So you don't do anything at all. I wish a Android developer could accomplish this.
- albert180 3y agoI see your point now. Here no phone with a Contract is locked anymore, and certainly no Bullshit like "locked Functions" that you have to pay extra for like Tethering. So it's not a huge hassle to quickly spin up a hotspot. But Android offers a Airdrop-Like-Feature natively called "Nearby Share" but what still sucks in my POV that there is still no Cross-Plattform-Solution between iPhones and Android out there
- davidbanham 3y agoI routinely use airdrop to transfer mapping data when fighting bushfires in remote areas. There’s no network of any kind on most of these, but with a geocoded PDF map and Avenza we can still plot going edges, mark hotspots and dangerous trees, etc. Being able to quickly squirt all of that, including photos, to another crew is a literal lifesaver.
- 1vuio0pswjnm7 3y ago"All of these "alternatives to airdop" don't seem to actually do what airdrop does, which is create an ad-hoc wireless connection." Not all of them. "Airdrop isn't just a nice UI for sending files between people, it allows a wi-fi speed transfer between two [Apple] devices that aren't connected to an existing network of that speed." More precisely, WiFi Direct allows it. There is no reason why one should not be able to use WiFi Direct to transfer files between Apple hardware and non-Apple hardware. But Apple and Google, via iOS and Android, stop users from using WiFi Direct to do it. WiFi Direct does not belong to Apple, or Google. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi_Direct https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi_Direct Everyone who buys a computer from these companies should be able to write applications that use WiFi Direct. The chips support it. The buyers own the hardware, not Apple or Google.