Quick Share is now compatible with Apple's AirDrop

A Pixel 9 Pro next to an iPhone 15 Pro Max on a wicker table

By Karandeep Singh Oberoi Published 11 hours ago Karandeep Singh Oberoi is a Durham College Journalism and Mass Media graduate who joined the Android Police team in April 2024, after serving as a full-time News Writer at Canadian publication MobileSyrup. Prior to joining Android Police, Oberoi worked on feature stories, reviews, evergreen articles, and focused on 'how-to' resources. Additionally, he informed readers about the latest deals and discounts with quick hit pieces and buyer's guides for all occasions. Oberoi lives in Toronto, Canada. When not working on a new story, he likes to hit the gym, play soccer (although he keeps calling it football for some reason🤔) and try out new restaurants in the Greater Toronto Area. Sign in to your Android Police account Summary Generate a summary of this story follow Follow followed Followed Like Like Thread 1 Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recap

Google just dropped a bombshell. Quick Share is now compatible with Apple's AirDrop, allowing Android and iOS users to seamlessly share files, photos, videos, and more without relying on third-party services.

The surprise announcement, which the tech giant made in a blog post earlier today, should offer a huge boost in interoperability.

This appears to be a protocol-level handshake, and not a simple cloud-based workaround. That is precisely why the integration is currently limited to Google's latest Pixel 10 series.

There seems to be no such device-related limitation on Apple's side, even though it looks like Apple played no real part in making the handshake possible. In a statement given to 9to5Google, the company said that it would "welcome collaboration opportunities to address interoperability issues between iOS and Android," suggesting that the new featur is all Google's own doing.

"Android and iPhone users can now share files, starting with the Pixel 10 family," wrote Google, suggesting that the functionality will expand to older Pixels and other Android devices in the near future.

Google says that the feature is secure by design. "We built this feature with security at its core, protecting your data with strong safeguards that have been tested by independent security experts," wrote the tech giant, describing processes like threat modeling, internal security design and privacy reviews, and internal penetration testing to identify and fix vulnerabilities.

Google also mentioned other security and privacy measures, including:

Secure Sharing Channel: The communication channel itself is hardened by our use of Rust to develop this feature. This memory-safe language is the industry benchmark for building secure systems and provides confidence that the connection is protected against buffer overflow attacks and other common vulnerabilities.
Built-in Platform Protections: This feature is strengthened by the robust built-in security of both Android and iOS. On Android, security is built in at every layer. Our deep investment in Rust at the OS level hardens the foundation, while proactive defenses like Google Play Protect work to keep your device safe. This is complemented by the security architecture of iOS that provides its own strong safeguards that mitigate malicious files and exploitation. These overlapping protections on both platforms work in concert with the secure connection to provide comprehensive safety for your data when you share or receive.

Elsewhere, the strongest safety net of 'em all, you, the user, will need to manually accept all incoming transfers, ensuring that files can be sent to your device without your explicit consent.

A GIF highlighting Quick Share and AirDrop interoperability.

Credit: Google

Quick Share's connection with AirDrop is direct and peer-to-peer, but it does require the latter to be set to 'Everyone.' For reference, iPhone users can set AirDrop to work with "Everyone for 10 Minutes," or "Contacts Only" indefinitely.

If an iPhone's AirDrop setting is set to the latter, Quick Share won't be able to discover the Apple device.

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.

Quick Share running on two devices. One is sending a file, one is receiving.

Related How to use Quick Share, Android's AirDrop alternative

Quickly share content within your network

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Michael Michael Michael #HY127974 Member since 2024-06-22 Following 0 Topics 0 Users Follow Followed 0 Followers View
When does it become active? I just tried with my iPad mini and pixel 10 pro and no luck
2025-11-20 14:55:50 Upvote Downvote Reply Copy