Android-to-iPhone AirDrop Transfers Now Supported on Pixel 9

[I7guy]

You're mixing up the protocols. Wi-Fi Direct predates AWDL, and Android has supported it since version 4.1. iOS, however does not support* it. AirDrop uses Apple's AWDL proprietary protocol. Because Apple explicitly kept these protocols completely undocumented for third party use, reverse engineering is literally the only way to make non Apple hardware support Airdrop and Airplay.

First, AWDL was reverse engineered 7 years ago, and Apple hasn't completely changed it because doing so would instantly break backward compatibility for millions of existing Macs and iOS devices. There are open source implementations of AWDL that anyone can use if you are on Linux.

Second, under the new EU DMA regulations, Apple is no longer "free" to arbitrarily break third party interoperability. The EU legally mandates that Apple must provide "effective interoperability with any future updates, including new functionalities, of the P2P Wi-Fi connection feature, including with future functionalities of AWDL". If Apple updates their protocol, they are required by law to make those updates available to third parties at the exact same time.

Well we will see what happens with the airdrop protocol especially in the EU.

 

[Mrkevinfinnerty]

Hmm. Wonder if apple is going to cut this off at its knees?

Hopefully Apple will devise a way of making files that have been Airdropped from Android a horrible colour to shame school children.

 

[MrSnirf]

Well we will see what happens with the airdrop protocol especially in the EU.

I suspect, nothing will happen. They will continue to maintain AWDL as their exclusive proprietary protocol while also providing the equivalent Wi-Fi Aware for third party devs since it provides similar capabilities to AWDL. I also think they won't bother trying to break Google's implementation.