19 ms·

Android and iPhone users can now share files, starting with the Pixel 10

• Dban1 11mo ago
  Finally in 2025, a revolutionary advancement in technology.
  • oceansky 11mo ago
    We didn't have the processing power for this before! AI made some PhD productive enough for this to finally be possible.
  • gumby271 10mo ago
    A revolutionary advancement in consumer rights. This technology was possible for years but Apple didn't want their users to escape their grip.
• olly994 11mo ago
  Just use Wormhole for file transfer. Small and easy to use. I have put on all my computers, laptops and phones.
  • __jonas 11mo ago
    100% of the time when I want to share a file from my phone to another phone, the other phone is not owned by me and I can’t just install some software on it
    • polishdude20 11mo ago
      Wormhole can be run in the browser easily.
      • RenThraysk 11mo ago
        Yep https://webwormhole.com/ https://webwormhole.com/ Just needs a WebRTC capable browser.
        • polishdude20 10mo ago
          The official one is at https://wormhole.app https://wormhole.app
      • __jonas 11mo ago
        That’s cool, I actually didn’t know that!
  • analog31 11mo ago
    Granted, this is an edge case: I'm a musician. I use an Android tablet for sheet music. That's great when I have WiFi access, otherwise, file transfer is hard. Not impossible, but awkward when show time is in 5 minutes and someone has brought some brought some new material that they want the band to play. The almost universal solution is "should have gotten Apple."
• netsharc 11mo ago
  Ah, makes me think of MacOS system 7 days. MacOS formatted the 3.5" disks with its own filesystem, so if you copied a file onto it, and put the disk in a Windows PC (or DOS?), the PC would go "Huh?". 3 decades later, hooray, now we can share files between Android and iPhone!
  • fmbb 11mo ago
    System 7 had built in tools to read and write DOS disks: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_File_Exchange https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_File_Exchange
    • coupdejarnac 11mo ago
      I distinctly remember how it was the bare minimum. You'd mount a disk or open a plain text file, and there'd be a lot of strange characters that weren't decoded properly.
      • swiftcoder 11mo ago
        And that's why we all had to buy a copy of MacLinkPlus!
  • rconti 11mo ago
    What does this have to do with System 7? Operating systems have always used their own filesystems, and it persists to this day. The only obvious exceptions that come to mind are iso9660 as a standard for CDs, and people generally go out of their way to use FAT/FAT32/whatever on USB keys and SD cards for compatibility with cameras or whatever device they're plugging the card into. But the latter is a choice users actively make to ensure the FS is compatible with the device, rather than a default.
• moi2388 11mo ago
  Eww, green files? /s
• leshenka 11mo ago
  What would it take to make it work when reception is set to "contacts"?
  • bilal4hmed 11mo ago
    not supported right now, but seems they might be able to make it work in the future https://security.googleblog.com/2025/11/android-quick-share-support-for-airdrop-security.html https://security.googleblog.com/2025/11/android-quick-share-... To ensure a seamless experience for both Android and iOS users, Quick Share currently works with AirDrop's "Everyone for 10 minutes" mode. This feature does not use a workaround; the connection is direct and peer-to-peer, meaning your data is never routed through a server, shared content is never logged, and no extra data is shared. As with "Everyone for 10 minutes" mode on any device when you’re sharing between non-contacts, you can ensure you're sharing with the right person by confirming their device name on your screen with them in person. This implementation using "Everyone for 10 minutes” mode is just the first step in seamless cross-platform sharing, and we welcome the opportunity to work with Apple to enable “Contacts Only” mode in the future.
  • Aloisius 11mo ago
    That would probably require cooperation with Apple. The contact-only mode is authenticated using an Apple-signed device certificate and a signed record of those contact identifiers (as hashed UUIDs) that have been registered for a particular Apple ID associated with the device. Someone with a Mac can extract those from the keychain (the people behind OpenDrop have a tool to do this), but otherwise you'd need to register a new apple ID, get Apple to register the contact information, register a device of some sort and then do all the key exchanges.
• OptionOfT 11mo ago
  The fact that I get excited about this is actually a good representation much vendor lock there is. We used to be able to send files over Bluetooth before the iPhone came out.
  • rckt 11mo ago
    And even via IR port.
  • deleted 11mo ago
    [deleted]
  • tormeh 11mo ago
    Looks like this is an Apple problem that can ve solved by not using Apple products. Every once in a while I look at some Apple device and think it's nifty. Shortly after I'm made aware of some thing or other that they can't do because Apple just doesn't like standards, open source, or just freedom itself.
    • hhh 11mo ago
      Like what?
      • dnissley 11mo ago
        On iPhones you can't install software except through the app store
        • nkozyra 11mo ago
          Well Android is going to be the same way now, too.
          • StopDisinfo910 11mo ago
            Certainly not. Google is only mandating signing. That’s already extremely bad but that’s still infinitely better than what Apple offers.
• mcoliver 11mo ago
  Why only the pixel 10? What piece of hardware is the pixel 9 (one year old) missing?
  • p0w3n3d 11mo ago
    Yay if you pay additional fee you will maybe get Bluetooth file sending to PC
    • jeroenhd 10mo ago
      QuickShare already works for Android <-> Windows/ChromeOS, though.
  • evanjrowley 11mo ago
    The answer to your 2nd question might be Google's custom silicon: https://blog.google/products/pixel/tensor-g5-pixel-10/ https://blog.google/products/pixel/tensor-g5-pixel-10/ The answer to your first question may simply be they want to sell more Pixel 10 phones. The investment into custom silicon is more likely to pay off when new and exiting features are exclusive to the newer platform.
    • russianGuy83829 11mo ago
      previous pixel phones also had custom Google silicon, just with some Samsung IP
    • arghwhat 11mo ago
      That hardware is completely unrelated to such a simple feature. Something like AirDrop will only use fairly trivial crypto, which most likely ciphers with full acceleration available but even without it would work fine with plenty of performance headroom. Neither Apple nor Google is doing anything revolutionary with their silicon for such a standard compute task. It's really mostly minor tuning to get a more optimal part instead of an off-the-shelf chip catering to other uses too, with die area and power consumption "wasted" in your setup.
• bigyabai 11mo ago
  Duopoly who?
• hsnewman 11mo ago
  [flagged]
• prmoustache 11mo ago
  Aren't most people just sending files over whatsapp/signal/whatever instant messaging apps they use?
  • rahimnathwani 11mo ago
    Large files.
    • swiftcoder 11mo ago
      or images, which WhatsApp insists on recompressing, which tends to really impact the quality
      • Almondsetat 11mo ago
        Whatsapp doesn't insist anything. You just send the photos as files
        • swiftcoder 11mo ago
          You can indeed! For some reason, I'm having trouble teaching various relatives how to do that
  • add-sub-mul-div 11mo ago
    That's my first thought too, as an Android user. But Apple culture is about using what's built in, the path of least resistance, and Android/Windows are more for tinkerers who seek out their favorite solutions from a wide variety of third party options.
    • Angostura 11mo ago
      … and sharing files locally at high speed when you aren’t on a network
  • vscode-rest 11mo ago
    AirDrop is cool because it works offline with relatively high bandwidth using local RF. If you want to wait for you and the target to transmit all the data to/from some server 1000 miles away (using up your precious bandwidth quota along the way) that’s always been an option.
• averysmallbird 11mo ago
  What are the chances that this is made possible because of the DMA?
  • layer8 11mo ago
    Around 1.0, I would say.
  • dmitrygr 11mo ago
    0, this is reverse engineered AirDrop protocol. Implementations have been around for a while, eg: https://github.com/seemoo-lab/opendrop https://github.com/seemoo-lab/opendrop
    • hu3 11mo ago
      If implemntations have been around for a while but it only happened now, then it's 99% chance that's it's Apple backpedalling and trying to weasel their way around DMA. They got smoked in court, see ruling at https://ec.europa.eu/competition/digital_markets_act/cases/202523/DMA_100203_1655.pdf https://ec.europa.eu/competition/digital_markets_act/cases/2... 5.4.8. Implementation timing (245) Apple should provide effective interoperability with the P2P Wi-Fi connection feature by implementing the measures for Wi-Fi Aware 4.0 in the next major iOS release, i.e. iOS 19, at the latest, and for Wi-Fi Aware 5.0 in the next iOS release at the latest nine months following the introduction of the Wi-Fi Aware 5.0 specification.
      • leshenka 11mo ago
        opendrop works without asking Apple
      • leo60228 10mo ago
        These rulings only affect third-party apps, not AirDrop. Apple is not required to stop using AWDL for system apps, and is also not required to allow third-party implementations of the AirDrop protocol. They are however required to implement a mechanism allowing competing solutions to automatically trigger a prompt to install their own iOS apps, but the deadline for that isn't until next year and they have not yet shipped it.
• rckt 11mo ago
  At the same time as we have companies trying to push their humanoid robots with AI and all, we finally have devices able to communicate with each other again. Vendor locking is such a stupid thing.
  • deleted 11mo ago
    [deleted]
• somanyphotons 11mo ago
  Am I right to assume that they simply implemented AirDrop without discussing with Apple?
  • jhogervorst 11mo ago
    I was wondering the same. Looking at the statements in the posts, I think so?
  • do_not_redeem 11mo ago
    Reading between the lines, it seems like Google is playing a bit of chess here. Reminds me of the Beeper Mini stunt, except this time by a trillion-dollar company they can't just sweep under the rug. > we welcome the opportunity to work with Apple to enable “Contacts Only” mode in the future. > I applaud the effort to open more secure information sharing between platforms and encourage Google and Apple to work together more on this. Your move, Apple.
    • GeekyBear 11mo ago
      I am reminded of Microsoft implementing a YouTube app for Windows Phone, and Google repeatedly blocking it.
      • wiseowise 11mo ago
        Because Google is an underdog here. In your memory Google is Microsoft and Apple is Google.
    • somanyphotons 11mo ago
      I think Apple will be ok with this, it clearly shows Android being less capable/compatible than other iPhones, a bit like blue/green bubbles
    • thewebguyd 11mo ago
      That's how it reads to me. They made a big deal during the Pixel 10 launch to talk about Apple/iOS features, and switching from iPhone to Pixel. They called the blue/green bubbles childish, and they put Magasafe in the Pixel and explicitly said "you can use all your Apple accessories." Google is going hard after iPhone users by trying to punch holes in Apple's walled garden anytime they can. AirDrop is another hole in the wall, as was Magsafe, and RCS. If Google can get other AWDL features working between macOS and Android, particularly universal clipboard and universal control, I'd seriously consider switching back to Android after many, many years on iOS purely for the ecosystem integration. iMessage doesn't bother me, but I use AirDrop, AirPods auto switching on calls, and universal clipboard daily and those are all blockers for my considering a switch.
• reactormonk 11mo ago
  Shoutout to https://localsend.org/ https://localsend.org/ - it can even open a local webserver if needed.
  • wiseowise 11mo ago
    Not the same.
  • aagha 11mo ago
    I prefer https://pairdrop.net/ https://pairdrop.net/ ; nicer interface
    • 85392_school 11mo ago
      To continue the thread, my favorite is https://drop.lol https://drop.lol
      • serial_dev 11mo ago
        I’m using FilePizza when I need it, saw it on HN recently. All this AI magic allegedly taking our jobs, but we still can’t transfer files from one device to another, or print a document reliably. https://file.pizza/ https://file.pizza/
        • doublerabbit 11mo ago
          > we still can’t transfer files from one device to another Nor send text message with images.
          • stronglikedan 11mo ago
            Or react to images sent by those that can.
            • throwaway290 11mo ago
• hshdhdhj4444 11mo ago
  Of course, AirDrop is absolutely awful. Is the Android equivalent any better?
  • sahaskatta 11mo ago
    Curious, why do you think AirDrop is so bad? As for Android, it works fine, but I’ve probably used that feature only once in the past ten years. I haven't seen others use it either.
    • ChadNauseam 11mo ago
      AirDrop works very infrequently for me. I will open AirDrop and not see someone who's sitting right next to me, or then I'll send them the file and it'll get stuck on "waiting" and they'll never get the notification, or it'll send some of the files then seem to get stuck partway through. This is all with modern day iPhones, like iPhone 15 and above, and just using it in what should be the happy path. I'm actually really surprised every time I hear people say it's so good, because I almost always have to end up just imessaging a picture instead and finding that it works much better.
      • Melatonic 11mo ago
        I've had the same issue as a more recent iOS convert. I remembering looking into it and I think there's actually two forms of airdrop - one is local only (I think it negotiates over Bluetooth then does actual transfer over a direct WiFi connection). The other is a fallback or something and goes over cellular. And for some reason it seems to always want to fall back to cellular when you have one bar of shit 3G in the middle of nowhere and are trying to send your friend 2 feet away a shitload of photos from your trip.
  • jddecker 11mo ago
    One thing I like about Android Quick Send is that you can generate a QR code, that the other person scans, and it'll send the file to them. I use it so rarely, and most people I know are the same, so usually it's just turned off and I find a lot of other Android users are the same.
• TheAceOfHearts 11mo ago
  Long overdue, there should really be an open standard for wireless sharing of files. Windows? macOS? Linux? Android? iOS? Switch2? PS5? Doesn't matter, just open the wireless file transfer window and it should just work. Having to install third-party apps for such basic functionality is ridiculous. If we had a functional government every major tech CEO would get called by congress, grilled about this bullshit, and told to sort it out unless they want to get some bullshit legislation shoved down their throat.
  • nicolaslem 11mo ago
    I am with you. How is it that in the past we got major successes like TCP/IP, 802.3, HTTP and WiFi but somehow in the past decade big tech decided that was too much collaboration and it would be better for everyone to stop doing that?
    • thewebguyd 11mo ago
      > big tech That's why. TCP/IP was DARPA, so publicly (taxpayer) funded. The first HTTPd was public domain. WiFi was a bit of a combo of Vic Hayes & Bell Labs, IEEE and a research org so not exactly a public or public domain project. Big tech and profit/rent seeking is literally the problem. Things don't interoperate because it's not profitable for them to interoperate. We stopped undertaking large public works projects in tech and outsourced it all to private companies. Big tech is literally the problem. This is why free and open source software is so important. How different would things look if httpd wasn't public domain, and Tim instead started a tech company, made it proprietary, etc.
      • j1elo 11mo ago
        So does this constitute an example that the liberal ideal of companies competing for the best product -with no or minimal amount of public money forced to go this way for public development- ends up becoming basically a miserable and lacking experience for end users during decades? (admittedly it sounds to me like if private companies had invented TCP-IP, the consequences would basically be terrible connectivity products nowadays)
• alistairSH 11mo ago
  Is the benefit transferring "local" via BT instead of across the internet as a text message attachment? Because I do the latter plenty, but pretty much never AirDrop anything to anybody, even if they're sitting next to me.
  • t-writescode 11mo ago
    I AirDrop files between my different Apple devices pretty regularly.. I guess everyone has their own system for doing things.
  • jampa 11mo ago
    I used them. Compression is an issue in other protocols (sending via WhatsApp, for example). Another benefit is that photos sent by Airdrop get automatically backed up. It also works well in areas with poor internet connectivity. For example, some beaches have weak cellphone signals due to their surroundings, so when meeting friends, we generally use Airdrop.
  • cosmic_cheese 11mo ago
    AirDrop uses P2P wifi for the actual transfer which can make it significantly faster than transferring through the internet, which makes a big difference for photos, videos, and other large files. It also works out in the middle of a forest where there are no wireless connections as well as it works in the middle of NYC.
    • kayodelycaon 11mo ago
      It’s great. I used it to move entire folders from my Mac to an account-less iPad with no Internet connection. I thought it was going to be slow, but hundreds of gigabytes was fully transferred in less than a minute.
      • Eduard 11mo ago
        > hundreds of gigabytes was fully transferred in less than a minute. yeah right
• bochoh 11mo ago
  It seems that this is directional, flowing from Android to Apple but not necessarily back (e.g., me airdropping a photo to my parent who uses Android). I'd love for this to work in the other direction as well.
  • somehnguy 11mo ago
    The demo shows it working both ways, so you're in luck
  • evanreichard 11mo ago
    The video shows both directions.
  • emaro 11mo ago
    There's a gif on the blog showing file sharing in both directions. Apparently "Contacts only" sharing doesn't work yet, as mentioned in another comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45995586 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45995586
  • commandersaki 11mo ago
    I came to the same conclusion when I clicked the link to try it out, just watching the video now to verify that the flow is both ways.
• marcodiego 11mo ago
  Around 2008 I saw two girls, not too versed in technology, share a mp3 song over bluetooth. At the time I thought that if technology finally arrived at the point where "normal people" could be able to do things that required lots of technical knowledge just a few years ago then we were very close to a future where technology could be a giant enabler of powers to everyone. I am really ashamed by how wrong I was and how WE allowed things to became so artificially limited.
  • MiddleEndian 11mo ago
    In high school (2003-2007) it was super easy for any of my friends and I (varying technical levels) to send arbitrarily large files to each other with AOL Instant Messenger's Direct Connect. Honestly not even sure how a non-technical person would do that nowadays.
    • DANmode 11mo ago
      They wouldn’t. This is intentional.
    • Telaneo 11mo ago
      The closest I've seen is 'send file over message service or e-mail', but this has a decently low maximum file size. The alternative for larger files is Dropbox or Google Drive or similar and share a link, but there are limits to how full you can have those be, so sending a 5 GB file might be inconvenient if you don't pay for the upgraded service. For anything larger than that again, I don't think I would do anything than pass a physical flash drive, since there's nothing else that has a lower barrier of entry and I can rely on a random person to be able to use and understand.
      • MiddleEndian 11mo ago
        I have upgraded dropbox and google accounts and also a VPS, so it wouldn't be hard for me. But for people who aren't big fucking nerds, nothing exists that's as easy as that. Email's limit is crazy low.
    • 11mo ago
• theoldgreybeard 11mo ago
  Nice. I can also recommend LocalSend.
  • deleted 11mo ago
    [deleted]
• lazyeye 11mo ago
  The Localsend app is the way https://localsend.org/ https://localsend.org/
  • layer8 11mo ago
    LocalSend requires devices to be on the same local network, which this doesn’t, it establishes a direct Wi-Fi connection.
• marcodiego 11mo ago
  If you're using android, you can easily share files over local network (or using your phone as hotspot) with this app: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.MarcosDiez.shareviahttp/ https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.MarcosDiez.shareviahttp/ If you're not close, telegram fork allow easy sharing of files too.
  • hackernewds 11mo ago
    but I have to download and app which is the same as downloading Google drive
    • thewebguyd 11mo ago
      and more importantly, AirDrop works without network, it's P2P. There's situations where the devices you want to share to/from aren't on the same network or can't put them on the same network for various reasons.
• adenta 11mo ago
  Now we just need universal clipboard between Android and OSX
• emaro 11mo ago
  Fucking finally. I just really hope is also lands in AOSP and will be available on all Android phones in the future.
• zebel 11mo ago
  [dead]
• dlcarrier 11mo ago
  Why is this part of the OS?
  • flexagoon 11mo ago
    Because it can't be implemented without low level hardware access. But also, it seems like it's a part of GMS, not of the OS itself.
    • dlcarrier 11mo ago
      Low level hardware access for opening a file and a network port? Those are some of the first lessons in any programming tutorial. If they aren't available, what is the OS even doing? Also, for all intents and purposes, GMS is part of the Android OS, but Google had to branch it off, to keep it closed source.
      • spiznnx 11mo ago
        AirDrop doesn't open a network port, it creates a WiFi Aware advertisement and a WiFi Direct connection. However I thought this also should not need OS-level changes, just android.permission.NEARBY_WIFI_DEVICES permission.
      • leo60228 10mo ago
        AirDrop is based on AWDL, which is a proprietary protocol that requires low-level access to the Wi-Fi radio to implement. Apple told the EU that they have long-term plans to migrate from AWDL to the standard Wi-Fi Aware, but have not yet done so (and the EU did not require them to, only that they bring their Wi-Fi Aware support for third-party apps to feature parity).
• Aman_Kalwar 11mo ago
  Finally! Interoperability like this should’ve existed years ago. Curious how they’re handling privacy & bandwidth
• kgwxd 11mo ago
  Until they decide we can't again.
• happosai 11mo ago
  https://xkcd.com/949/ https://xkcd.com/949/ ...still relevant
• layer8 11mo ago
  This is based on Wi-Fi Aware: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi_Alliance#Wi-Fi_Aware https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi_Alliance#Wi-Fi_Aware Some background: https://www.ditto.com/blog/cross-platform-p2p-wi-fi-how-the-eu-killed-awdl https://www.ditto.com/blog/cross-platform-p2p-wi-fi-how-the-... On the Apple side, this was prompted by the EU Digital Markets Act: https://digital-markets-act.ec.europa.eu/questions-and-answers/interoperability_en https://digital-markets-act.ec.europa.eu/questions-and-answe...
  • wiseowise 11mo ago
    [flagged]
    • lnxg33k1 11mo ago
      [flagged]
      • thewebguyd 11mo ago
        Apple will never leave the EU market, that would be a stupid decision. EU is barely smaller than the US market if looking at GDP per capita, it's only a difference of ~$16,000. If looking at population, EU is larger than the US. Hopefully they keep cracking open the walls of Apple's garden and Apple stops region locking the changes to just those markets.
        • lnxg33k1 11mo ago
          [flagged]
          • npteljes 11mo ago
            I read the comment several times, and I can't figure out your intent, or the message, because of how much it's coded in doublespeak. That might also be what trips others up.
• amelius 11mo ago
  At this point I don't even want to share files with Apple users.
• lloydatkinson 11mo ago
  In some ways we’re gone backwards. Sharing MP3 via Bluetooth on non-smart phones in 2007 was a common event when I was at school, that and burning CDs.
• keane 11mo ago
  Possibly relevant comment from a few years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26893693 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26893693 >AirDrop also shares your full name (seemingly the one associated with your Apple ID, not what you have set for yourself in your contacts), both by displaying it in the sharing interface on the involved devices and by attaching it as an extended attribute to uploaded files. >So if you AirDrop some files to your computer and then zip them up, anyone you send that zip to (a journalist, a public file-hosting site, w/e) will have your full legal name to go with them. Linked article from that thread is moved to https://medium.com/@kieczkowska/introduction-to-airdrop-forensics-b5076a2962da https://medium.com/@kieczkowska/introduction-to-airdrop-fore... (but is archived). I wonder if Google is adding metadata as well. Otherwise there does seem to be the problem of, for example, threats being AirDropped in a public place.
  • hoherd 11mo ago
    Using macOS 26 and iOS 26 I was unable to reproduce their findings. I airdropped a photo from my iOS device to my laptop, and nothing in `mdls`, `xattr -l`, `exiftool -s`, `rg -i` showed my name.
    • lathiat 11mo ago
      It wouldn't surprise if Apple had fixed this, it's the sortof thing they would fix, but it may be worth trying with 2 devices not from the same iCloud account. Wouldn't surprise me if the code paths were subtly different in that case.
      • quitit 11mo ago
        They would seem to contain identifiers as law enforcement have been able to follow up on instances where there has been airdropping of perverse images, but as noted by others the files don't include names. The problem with airdrop (and likely why the 10 minute setting now exists) is that it includes a preview image as part of the notification request. So other than being able to subject someone to perverse images, preview images have also been used in state-sponsored zero-click attacks to infect the phones of their targets. While that vector seems to be muted for now, the 10 minute setting provides a layer of defence against both potential future zero-clicks and receiving unsolicited previews images.
• jamescrowley 11mo ago
  I wonder if this works more reliably than airdropping between my iPhone and MacBook… which seems to be 50% success rate at best.
  • Retr0id 11mo ago
    I was never able to make it work, for some reason.
• PunchyHamster 11mo ago
  I'm sure Apple will slap some annoy-a-trons to it any moment
• urbandw311er 11mo ago
  This sounds great but I can’t even get Airdrop to work reliably between my Apple devices, let alone Android.
• hollow-moe 11mo ago
  is it just the proprietary quickshare that no other rom or even os can implement ? sure won't care to open to read that shit from g**gle and assume it is.
• gwbas1c 11mo ago
  Why is quick share buried in the settings menu, instead of being an app? Especially when receiving a file, it makes no sense to start by going into settings.
  • abraham 11mo ago
    Generally, you don't have to open settings. The the built-in share menu from a file has quick share as an option and if someone shares something with you, you'd get a notification.
  • gumby271 11mo ago
    You can add it to the quick settings tiles in the notification shade, they show that exact flow in the blog post.
• codethief 11mo ago
  Do we know yet whether this will require Google Play Services and the like on Android? Or, worse, SafetyNet? I dream of using this on GrapheneOS without any Google stuff.
  • Narushia 11mo ago
    I'd be surprised if it did, there's no technical reason to require those. Also, SafetyNet is deprecated in favor of Play Integrity, so you're not likely to see the former in any new apps/services.
    • codethief 11mo ago
      > I'd be surprised if it did, there's no technical reason to require those. That has never stopped Google from requiring Play Services.
  • benwaffle 11mo ago
    QuickShare already requires Google Play Services, so I don't think that will change
  • leo60228 10mo ago
    All of the code for this (including AWDL, at least to an extent) is implemented as part of Play Services, unfortunately.
• supportengineer 11mo ago
  Does anyone remember the old YouSendIt? That was a really easy way to share files with anyone. You uploaded a file to their site, and you should share a secret link.
  • ls612 11mo ago
    That’s more or less how iMessage works when you send a file. It encrypts the file on your device, uploads it to iCloud, and then sends a link and the decryption key as an iMessage (so it’s E2EE) to the recipient.
• 1970-01-01 11mo ago
  Is iPhone still abstracting files away into some kind of seamless data experience for the end user or does is finally understand what files are for?
  • Antrikshy 11mo ago
    They have a shiny file system abstraction, but ever since they introduced that, they have allowed downloading arbitrary files into it AFAIK.
  • benwaffle 11mo ago
    There's a files app
  • leo60228 10mo ago
    Things have inverted: iOS now has a user-visible filesystem apps can expose their data in, while current Android versions model everything around "documents" sourced from "document providers" with major performance and functionality limitations.
• dataflow 11mo ago
  What I want to know is under what circumstances Quick Share will send the files over the internet, and how exactly I can prevent that and force it to go solely over the local network. Nearby Share had the ability to control this, and it seems they deliberately removed it from Quick Share.
  • varenc 11mo ago
    AirDrop compatible Quick Share isn't even going over the local network. It create an adhoc device-to-device wireless connection and the files are sent that way. So the two phones don't even need to be on wifi or be on the same network at all. The local network isn't involved. Given this, I think there's minimal risk of it sending files over the internet.
    • dataflow 10mo ago
      > It create an adhoc device-to-device wireless connection and the files are sent that way. So the two phones don't even need to be on wifi or be on the same network at all. Isn't that just Wi-Fi Direct? Which I understand establishes a separate, dedicated temporary network for that task over Wi-Fi, with the two devices being the only ones connected to it? Isn't that still two machines on the same network via Wi-Fi, merely separate from prior networks they may have been connected to? How can you claim there is no local network or that the device doesn't need to be on Wi-Fi at all? Surely they need both a local network and Wi-Fi? Or are you referring to Bluetooth-only transfers? In any case, my point obviously wasn't that I my home router has to see the packets, but whether/when servers on the internet become involved...
      • varenc 10mo ago
        It's "WiFi-Aware" which seems like a related standard. I think the difference is it handles the discovery and secure connection part, then once established its like WiFi-Direct. Because of this I think it's unlikely. And Apple devices can do this while simultaneously connected to another wifi network. Maybe Android does too. Which would make your concern more possible if it does this too!
• grishka 11mo ago
  Huh, so assuming this will work with macOS as well, this eventually makes NearDrop, my macOS app that goes the other way around by implementing Google's Quick Share, obsolete.
• hrtk 11mo ago
  How did Apple agree to this?
• deleted 11mo ago
  [deleted]
• jgord 11mo ago
  One of my many side projects was a thing called ODO .. linux box hooked up to the TV, running a web browser provided and intranet web page where you can browse media and files tree and thus share files. Could also use it to play media - so a phone or tablet could act as a remote control from anywhere in wifi reach, and play music on the main TV screen / speakers or on the local device. Was pretty cool, but didnt have the funds to commercialize it.
• lewspc 11mo ago
  [dead]
• SilverElfin 11mo ago
  I can’t believe iPhone interoperability is still so bad. The group chats on iMessage have weird effects when you switch to android, where your friends will send messages that don’t reach you because they’re still sending it as iMessage to the whole group. The iCloud on windows doesn’t work and won’t sync files properly will use up your CPU. The entirety of iTunes is terrible and awkward. And of course, the functionality on AirPods is crippled outside of their ecosystem. These companies need more regulations not less.
• schappim 11mo ago
  This makes me wonder what concessions Google were able to get out of Apple for access to Gemini.
• ETH_start 11mo ago
  It's odd that I'm far more likely to use standard internet protocols to transfer files when I'm within Bluetooth range of other phones, when the Bluetooth option works faster and more efficiently.
• wackget 11mo ago
  Incredible! In an astounding feat, it has only taken a mere two decades to enable the world's largest tech companies to provide the most basic levels of interopability. At this breakneck speed of technological development, one can only imagine what wonderful boons await consumers in the next few decades.
  • symbogra 11mo ago
    I feel like we have finally entered the 21st century! Next stop moon bases and flying cars!
  • YPPH 11mo ago
    Apple could have implemented this a long time ago but decided not to implement Bluetooth file sharing.
    • Menu_Overview 10mo ago
      AirDrop is faster and more secure and reliable than simple Bluetooth file sharing. There are a number of reasons they weren't going to do that.
      • dzhiurgis 10mo ago
        Tons of antitrust cases and people still believe this in 2025.
      • Gud 10mo ago
        Airdrop is a proprietary format and doesn’t work on my laptop, which runs FreeBSD. Please stop excusing this anti social behaviour.
  • eviks 11mo ago
    They're might have exhausted their centennial budget of cooperation on trivial things!
  • mid-kid 11mo ago
    The astounding feat of reinventing Bluetooth...
• figassis 11mo ago
  Did you guys notice the number of steps that need to happen to share something as simple as a photo?
  • eimrine 11mo ago
    Just one extra step: upload all your files to our servers. Trust us, this is for your security.
• SXX 11mo ago
  And Pixel phones still not support Miracast because Google want to push their own proprietary tech.
• kleiba 11mo ago
  It's amazing how seemingly trivial things turn out to be really hard to be in practice. Like: - sharing files between two phones - printing a page on that printer over there - getting the projector to display my screen (correctly, or at all) - getting my wife not to click on a link in a random email
  • lloeki 11mo ago
    > getting my wife not to click on a link in a random email Hot take: MUAs should simply not make links clickable/copyable on render, or even strip any URI away completely.
    • 1718627440 10mo ago
      Just tell your MUA to only display the plaintext version. You should do that anyways.
      • lloeki 10mo ago
        I mean that to protect the proverbial technology-challenged grandma it should be the default. And that it should even s,http://.*,,g them out.
        • 1718627440 10mo ago
          > I mean that to protect the proverbial technology-challenged grandma it should be the default. Yes, I agree. > And that it should even s,http://.*,,g them out. No. Links are very useful and constantly present in conversation and manually written into messages. Do you seriously propose to basically ban them by default? Also I don't want the MUA to censor messages, that would also lead to a lot of confusion. If anything, they could not render them as hyperlinks by default, but stripping them out, no.
  • lexicality 11mo ago
    - sharing files between two phones when Apple's monopolistic tendencies are involved I've been using Quick Share to send files between different makes of Android phone for ages. This is entirely on Apple.
• thunfischtoast 11mo ago
  Now fix Direct Share on android, which is a highly broken feature and has been for years.
  • leshenka 11mo ago
    Why, I think you'd be able to send files between two androids via airdrop implementation.
    • thunfischtoast 10mo ago
      Direct Share is a "feature" where some contacts are displayed in the first row when you want to share some file. Unforunately, these contacts are not relevant and cannot be edited. They are just some random numbers and whatsapp groups for me. I cannot comprehend how this can be overlooked.
• profsummergig 11mo ago
  Why is it still so dodgy to share my clipboard between my cheap brand (i.e. non-Pixel) 4-year old Android phone and my Windows 11 PC? It's a failure on both Google's and Microsoft's part.
  • itsCarton 11mo ago
    KDE Connect handles that and a ton more very seamlessly imo. Not sure if the solution has to be first-party to qualify as "non-dodgy" but for a third-party solution it's pretty damned good
    • coderedart 11mo ago
      Throwing in my support for kde connect. It's just super convenient and it's FOSS + cross platform too. kde should honestly advertise it aggressively. There's nothing like it anywhere else.
      • profsummergig 10mo ago
        Does KDE Connect still require both devices to be on the same network? That's why I never got around to using it. Hoping it's changed. If Syncthing can share across networks, why not something else?
  • Nextgrid 11mo ago
    Because functional clipboard sharing would make you more productive and so you'll generate less "engagement" and screen time. Neither of those companies benefits.
• anshumankmr 11mo ago
  Can you airdrop it to me peeps in shambles...
• teekert 11mo ago
  Well that’s nice but given my still extremely poor experiences with Airdrop between 2 iPhones, I remain somewhat skeptical.
• ssenssei 11mo ago
  I use this app called LocalSend between my Mac, my phone, and my Windows. It's genuinely a godsend, and I hope whoever reads it tries it
• aallaall 11mo ago
  Only took 18 years for apple and google, good work! See you in 2043 for next common feature.
• bmacho 11mo ago
  ~a month ago I saw a comment on HN someone stating that the only possible way to send data from computer to phone is to convert it to base64, open it in a text file (several pages), photo them, OCR them and convert them back on the phone. The comment got deleted shortly after, but I like the idea of someone actually trying to send data from computer to phone, failing, and settling on this method
  • extraduder_ire 10mo ago
    I'd use QR codes rather than OCR.
• deknos 11mo ago
  can please someone build a iphone+ android app which does conveniently what cimbar (cimbar.org) does? than we do need much less of those filesharing activities, because videos go up to a few mb, and bigger than that.. well you can encrypt, share key via such an app and then upload to whereever.
• isolli 11mo ago
  Only tangentially related, but I was greatly disappointed when I learned that iPhones cannot read contact information from an NFC chip. I help my son program the chip, and then we realized that a significant fraction of the population would not be able to read it.
• linsomniac 11mo ago
  Has anyone gotten this to work? I tried with my Pixel 10 and my wife's iPhone 14, and her phone said something like "You can't do this with Android phones".
  • jeroenhd 10mo ago
    The iPhone needs iOS 26 and the Pixel needs the software updates Google started rolling out yesterday. You may need to update everything/wait for the magical A/B testing algorithm to permit you to update.
• mavhc 10mo ago
  It's 2025 and finally got back to Bluetooth file sharing OBEX that was supported in Android 2 in 2009, and the Palm 3 in 1998 (using IR), as long as you buy another new phone
• esbranson 10mo ago
  As mentioned by others, this apparently uses Wi-Fi Aware (aka Neighbor Awareness Networking or NAN). I'd be interested to know if the wpa_supplicant NAN interfaces can be used.[1] [1] https://w1.fi/cgit/hostap/tree/wpa_supplicant/README-NAN-USD https://w1.fi/cgit/hostap/tree/wpa_supplicant/README-NAN-USD
  • leo60228 10mo ago
    It does not. AirDrop, and to my knowledge all other Apple functionality, still uses AWDL. For backwards compatibility reasons, the EU did not require Apple remove AWDL, just that any improvements benefiting AWDL also affect Wi-Fi Aware. The EU also did not require Apple make AirDrop interoperable, only that they stop disadvantaging third-party competitors in certain ways (and those changes aren't implemented in iOS 26, the deadline for it is next year). Google's implementation was purely done via reverse-engineering, similarly to the existing OpenDrop project.
• bob1029 10mo ago
  Now do Universal Clipboard: https://support.apple.com/en-us/102430 https://support.apple.com/en-us/102430 You don't realize how much you needed this until you use it a few times.
  • leo60228 10mo ago
    KDE Connect makes this work between all combinations Windows/macOS/Linux and iOS/Android: https://kdeconnect.kde.org/ https://kdeconnect.kde.org/ Unfortunately, due to privacy restrictions on modern versions of both iOS and Android, updating the shared clipboard with things copied from the phone has to be done manually....
• thayne 10mo ago
  Why is it "starting with Pixel 10" and not "starting with Android X"? Will this only be available on new Pixel devices?
• podgorniy 10mo ago
  2025 -- Read with sarcasm
• kccqzy 10mo ago
  AirDrop sometimes just doesn’t work and gives you zero tools to debug why. In my experience airdrop between phones seem to work fine (probably helped by UWB), but involving Macs makes it an unreliable mess. Staring at the “there is no one nearby to share with” screen with little you can do. Bonus points when it’s asymmetrical: the Mac finds the iPhone just fine but the iPhone cannot find the Mac. When the device is finally found, tapping on it does not cause the other device to present any UI whatsoever to accept the transfer, and the sending devices simply displays “Declined” after a timeout. And if your Mac has multiple user accounts (traditional UNIX-style security boundary) it is undefined which user account will receive the notification to accept the transfer.
  • thewebguyd 10mo ago
    I haven't had AirDrop fail on me, but I have had other similar issues with Apple's "ecosystem" integration. And that's the frustrating part of using Apple. When it works, it works great. When it doesn't work, you have zero visibility into what's happening or what went wrong, and no tools to debug. It's just a magic black box and you are SOL.
• extraduder_ire 10mo ago
  Can anyone else implement this, or is it only a google play services thing? I don't like how android's local share system seems to need to be tied to a google account to work, and from some limited research earlier it won't work without play services installed.
• issafram 10mo ago
  I've for a Pixel 8 Pro, with the latest Android version. I hope they enable this in the future. No reason for it to be only for the 10+
  • estimator7292 10mo ago
    But how else will they convince you to buy a new phone?
  • leo60228 10mo ago
    The Wi-Fi radio's firmware has to have special support for communicating via AWDL while staying connected to an access point. The blog post does say that they plan to expand support to other devices, though.
• 1970-01-01 10mo ago
  As with all things Google, they still don't know that they both owned and killed a similar technology (Bump) 11 years ago. https://blog.bu.mp/post/61411611006/bump-google https://blog.bu.mp/post/61411611006/bump-google https://blog.bu.mp/ https://blog.bu.mp/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bump_(application) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bump_(application)
• unit149 10mo ago
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• pantoffel 10mo ago
  Wi-Fi Aware has been supported by Android since Android 8.0. However, I am a bit unsure if Android and iOS devices can communicate via Wi-Fi Aware with the SDKs that Apple released? They have two example apps, one for the DeviceDiscoveryUI and one for the AccessorySetupKit. However, would it be possible to pair/connect to an Android device? Would be great if someone had an example app.