My friend just installed iOS 7, so I finally have someone to test out Airdrop. We both have iPhone 5's, are in each other's contact lists, and both have Airdrop turned on. We've gotten it to work a couple of times, but more often than not, we just don't see each other as an option to send too. I know its still beta software, but we are coming dangerously close to release for it to only work from time to time, rather than every time. Anyone else have problems discovering people to share with?
My father and I have it installed (his ipad mini and my iphone 5) and airdrop has worked flawlessly so far.
It uses both: WiFi Direct & Bluetooth. My assumption is that it uses Bluetooth for proximity (finding close iOS users) and WiFi to actually transfer the file.
We just did a little testing, and figured it has something to do with the fact that we both work at a University, and have 3 different wifi networks, 2 of them more secure than the third. The third network is set up as an "off campus" network, and it's more similar to how your own wifi works at home, and when connected there, it worked fine, without problem. So thats interesting.
If this is true, which it very well might be, as I honestly don't know how Airdrop works, does it work if you're both on LTE with only bluetooth? If you HAVE to have wifi AND bluetooth to work, that sucks. There are plenty of times when my friends and I are not necessarily on the same wifi network, or on any wifi network at all.
You don't need a WiFi network. It creates a connection between the two iPhones directly (kinda like Bluetooth).
I finally put the fiance on iOS 7 last night. Airdrop has worked beautifully for us. (I've been OTA updating since Beta1 and she just got fresh Beta 6)