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Will Apple Kill Google's Surprise Android to iPhone AirDrop Interoperability?
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I never use this capability. It's too synchronous. Have to be paying attention to accept files. Just message the file or, if it's some one like my wife with whom I share files regularly, we have shared photo libraries, iCloud and notes folders.
If it's business, email it so I have a record and it goes through malware scans. I don't ever ask random strangers for files, only people I know well and have regular contact with.
If it's business, email it so I have a record and it goes through malware scans. I don't ever ask random strangers for files, only people I know well and have regular contact with.
Calm down. Apple did not comment nor took any action. Too soon to make conclusions. Hopefully they let this go, I think it's good for everyone. And the end, is something from one of their greatest partners, Google.
It's never going to work at all on older devices, and doesn't work >iOS 26. I'm not worried about it in the slighest..in fact, I'm happy to see it as my wife is a Pixel user.
You can't spam if you can't connect. I've always kept AirDrop turned off, and I never use it.
The EU made Apple adopt new Wi-Fi standards, and now Android can support AirDrop
Google’s Pixel 10 works with AirDrop, and other phones should follow later.
arstechnica.com
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It's simply leveraging open standards to accomplish peer-to-peer file transfer between platforms. iOS now uses Wi-Fi Aware for airdrop, and Android already had support for that spec, so this is really just a match made in heaven.
Android devices won't appear or be able to send when either end is set to accept airdrop from contacts only. Google did not reverse-engineer the handshake that exposes contacts in airdrop.
In other words "I have no good answer." Got it.
Leveraging open standards does not mean the handshake was not reverse engineered. why was Apple not upfront about this then and publish their “open standards”?
Do you not think that iPhone users are already capable of spamming other iPhone users?
You mean like they did when they invented USB, IRDA, Blutooth, WiFi, RS-232, SCSI, PCI, SATA, TCP/IP, Countless Graphics, Sound, and Video formats...
Your argument has been hogwash since AT&T used it in the 1960s. People smart enough to connect to the internet should be smarter than to fall for this "no incentive to make a standard" line.
Only adjacently related fun fact - in the USA, The ACH file format for sending electronic payments from accounting systems to banks is more or less a nationwide standard because there are thousands of banks that all need to support electronic deposits. Here in Canada, EFT (our version of ACH) is a lot more work to implement because we only have a handful of large banks, with each one implementing their own file format (with some banks implementing multiple incompatible formats).
Not directly from an iPhone using iPhone software and if the target has a modicum of correct settings.
That's not how contract law works. Its more likely Google could be in breach of existing contracts with this feature. Apple could use existing contracts to kill this or inject language into future contracts.
Google has zero leverage here. They are not Apple's only options. If Gemini isn't profitable before the bubble pops, it goes into the Google graveyard.
Same situation here. If you leave your airdrop set to "contacts only" you have nothing to worry about.
Those last two words are carrying a lot of weight in your comment. Especially given the restrictive setting requirements Google put in place for this to even work.
Pretty sure Apple knew this coming. The only way it breaks if there’s a security issue with it.
Wifi Aware support was introduced in iOS 26, that's correct. This only means, that third-party apps can use the technology to build solutions on top of the API. But I doubt that Apple's current AirDrop implementation is already based on that. The EU mandated that Apple and Google support interoperable file exchange by the end of next year based on Wifi Aware.
There is a pretty detailed explanation of the technical details here:
Ditto - Cross-Platform P2P Wi-Fi: How the EU Killed AWDL
This post investigates how we got from Wi-Fi Direct to AWDL to Wi-Fi Aware, what makes Wi-Fi Aware technically superior, and why this shift unlocks true cross-platform peer-to-peer connectivity for developers.
www.ditto.com
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Yes best practices are best practices. Don’t want to do them, no harm no foul.
Yes, at least in the EU. Apple can continue maintaining two codebases as they do now or one codebase for airdrop. We’ll see. But you can see how Apple will be selective with the features the eu countries will receive in the future.
I regret to inform you that Steve has unfortunately passed away, and is no longer in a decision making capacity at Apple
I'm a bit of a platform tart - on desktop I've bounced between Windows and Macs for decades, and tbh limitations like this one have me leaning back toweards Windows on my next rotation. I require an iPad for a lecturing side gig I do.
My phones have always been Android, except for a brief flirtation with Windows Phone (which was excellent and terrible at the same time).
i'm happy with Android, the muscle meory works well for me and I have a bit of money spent on apps that I don't really want to have to rebuy. No disrespect to iPhone owners - it's just what works for me.
Edit: one thing that does bug me about iOS and iPad OS is lack of access to the file system.
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