For years, the green bubble vs blue bubble divide extended to file sharing, making it hard to share files across Android and iPhones. Well, that has changed as Google has updated Quick Share on its latest devices to support AirDrop. This means you can now share files from a Pixel to an iPhone as if it were native, and they were part of the same ecosystem. Here's how to AirDrop files from Android to iPhone.
How to use AirDrop to share files from Android to iPhone
Because this integration isn't officially supported by Apple, there's one prerequisite to it, and that's changing a visibility setting on the iPhone. You can then easily start AirDrop from Android to iPhone. It's worth noting that although more Android phones are expected to get this feature, it's currently exclusive to the Pixel 10 series. Here's how to use it:
- Open the Control Centre on your iPhone by swiping down from the top right.
- Long-press the AirDrop tile and select Everyone for 10 Minutes.
- On your Pixel 10, navigate to the file or photo you want to share.
- Then, tap on the Share button and then select Quick Share from the share menu.
- When your Android phone detects the iPhone, it should appear inside the Quick Share screen. To connect, tap on iPhone under "Send to nearby devices".
- Now, on the iPhone, tap on Accept inside the AirDrop prompt that appears at the top to approve the transfer.
The same goes for iPhone to Android transfers. All you need to do on your iPhone is tap the Share icon and then select AirDrop. From there, all you need to do is tap on the Pixel device under "Other Devices" to share files. Similar to the AirDrop prompt above, this time the Quick Share screen will ask for approval when receiving a file.
If it isn't working, ensure your Pixel is fully updated. You can also update the Quick Share extension. Quick Share is not a separate app, you need to find it like finding hidden apps on Android and tap App details on the App info screen. This will take you to the Play Store listing of the app, where you can tap on Update if available.
Besides, ensure you update your Pixel phone by going to Settings > System > Software updates. Also, ensure that you're running the latest Google Play System update by tapping on Google Play system update and hitting Check for update.
Which Android phones support AirDrop?
To reiterate, AirDrop support in Quick Share is currently limited to the Pixel 10 series. To use it, you must own one of the following:
Although support is limited, Google did say that the feature won't be Pixel-exclusive and will arrive on all Android smartphones soon. Which brings us to how Google was able to get AirDrop working with Quick Share on Android.
How Airdrop works with Quick Share
Before you know how AirDrop has magically started working on Android, you must know why it's happening now. Google's efforts to bridge the gap between its Quick Share protocol and Apple's AirDrop comes shortly after the European Union started imposing stringent rules on Apple.
The EU has been pressuring Apple to make its core services interoperable, which forced the Cupertino company to support standards like Wi-Fi Aware. For those unaware, it's an open standard like Bluetooth and allows devices to discover each other, establish direct, peer-to-peer communication without a network.
In the case of AirDrop on Quick Share, while Wi-Fi Aware handles the heavy file transfer, the discovery process is where Google had to get clever. That's because even with Wi-Fi Aware, iPhones don't just listen for Android phones. They listen for other Apple devices via Bluetooth LE.
Pixel 10 series likely broadcasts a BLE packet that mimics the structure of an AirDrop advertisement. It effectively says, "Hey, I am a device that wants to share" in a format that the iPhone understand. Once the iPhone wakes up and sees the request, it accepts the handshake and lets in and out files.
This is also why you first need to set AirDrop to Everyone mode. In Contacts only mode, AirDrop relies on checks from Apple's iCloud servers to verify your identity, which Google doesn't have. Switching to Everyone removes the iCloud requirement and switches to Wi-Fi Aware.
And that's how you can AirDrop files from Android to iPhone and vice versa. That's all there is to it. The days of emailing photos to yourself or using a clunky third-party app are finally over. However, it will be interesting to see how Apple reacts to this or, if at all, and pushes an update to break the integration, which is very likely.
