'AirDrop' between iPhone and Android is now possible

In a surprise move, Google has just announced a major upgrade to Quick Share – the fast sharing feature similar to AirDrop for Android and Windows PC. With this update, iPhone users can AirDrop photos and files to Android phones, and vice versa.

 

The experience is pretty seamless: you just set AirDrop or Quick Share visibility to ' Everyone for 10 minutes ', then your iPhone will detect the receiving Android phone (and vice versa). Google doesn't reveal the specifics of how it 'tricks' the system to make the two platforms recognize each other, but claims the feature was built 'with security at the forefront' and tested by independent security experts.

Google shares:

We built this feature with security in mind, protecting your data with robust, independently audited layers of security. This is one of the many ways we're bringing better compatibility across operating systems, following RCS and unfamiliar device tracking warnings.

It's unclear whether Apple will be involved in this process. Apple is known for its closed ecosystem and often doesn't allow other platforms to interfere with its proprietary features. However, the company has made concessions in the past due to legal pressure, such as supporting RCS or switching to USB Type-C for iPhones. AirDrop is one of the utilities that has kept many people 'trapped' in the Apple ecosystem, so Apple's reaction to Google's new change will certainly be noteworthy.

According to Google, the 'cross-AirDrop' feature between Android and iPhone is being rolled out first for Pixel 10 users. There is no specific list of other supported Android devices yet, but Google promises to expand to more models in the near future.