Sharing holiday pictures with the whole family just got easier. Google found a way to make Android’s Quick Share feature cross-compatible with Apple AirDrop. This means Android and iPhone users can wirelessly transfer images and other files between their handsets.
The feature was announced Thursday, and currently only works with a few Android handsets, but Google promised wider availability is in development.
Quick Share works with AirDrop
AirDrop is Apple’s peer-to-peer wireless sharing system that lets users transfer photos, files and other content between iPhones, iPads and Macs without needing a network connection. A decade later, Google copied it with Android’s Nearby Share, since renamed Quick Share.
“As part of our efforts to continue to make cross-platform communication more seamless for users, we’ve made Quick Share interoperable with AirDrop, allowing for two-way file sharing between Android and iOS devices,” Google wrote on its blog. “This new feature makes it possible to quickly share your photos, videos, and files with people you choose to communicate with, without worrying about the kind of phone they use.”
Patience required
Before you get too enthusiastic, note that the only Androids the first iteration of the cross-platform tech is compatible with are the Pixel 10 family — two high-end models made by Google itself. But Google committed itself to expanding it to more Android devices.
That said, Google cannot send an operating system upgrade to all Androids with the new Quick Share version. Each Android can only get updates from the device maker — Samsung, Motorola, etc. These often only go to premium models, so a large percentage of Android in use run an older version of the OS. In short, it’s likely to be years before Google’s improved version of Quick Share is widely available.
At least the new version of Quick Share already works with any iPhone or other device that supports AirDrop.
Ed Hardy has been writing full-time about tech for 25 years, and using it for much longer than that. His intro to Apple was a Macintosh Classic II (which he still has), but now he uses a 13-inch iPad Pro as his primary computer. He’s written for NotebookReview, TabletPCReview, and Brighthand, as well as other sites.
