Samsung is reportedly working on its own alternative to AirDrop, Apple’s ad-hoc file sharing service that makes the cumbersome task very easy between the company’s devices. The file transfer can be done among iPhone and iPad, iPhone to Mac, etc over Bluetooth and WiFi. The feature was first introduced in 2011 and became extremely popular within no time. Impressed by its performance, Google is already working on creating a similar solution and now Samsung has also joined the list. Samsung is expected to launch this upcoming Galaxy S20 smartphone. The largest smartphone manufacturer has reportedly named this feature – Quick Share. This will work exactly similar to AirDrop, allowing you to share files instantly with people having Quick Share on their devices. There are some screenshots of the feature available on the internet.
Like AirDrop, Quick Share allows users to restrict who can send them files. There will be two options for users to select from – to Everyone or Contacts Only. When users select the option of Everyone, it will be wide open so that even strangers can send you the files. Moreover, Quick Share also allows users to transfer data to SmartThings connected devices. This is feasible because files transferred are first uploaded to the cloud-storage component before being downloaded on the device. This feature, however, will allow the transfer of a file of up to 1GB at a time with a maximum of 2GB being sent per day.
Samsung is not the only smartphone manufacturer that is working on an AirDrop competitor. China’s biggest smartphone manufacturers like Oppo, Xiaomi, and Vivo have already made their intentions of developing a peer-to-peer transfer protocol clear. Meanwhile, OnePlus has already developed FileDash for its devices that let users to transfer files to its own devices. Ever since AirDrop was launched in 2011, Android has been trying to come up with a possible competitor. Android introduced an NFC-based version called Android Beam but was discontinued with Android 10. Files app of the search engine giant also contains similar functionality, but this is not like one built directly into Android. But things can change in the near future as there are reports that Android is working on a feature called Nearby Sharing. The feature was first spotted in 2019 under the name of Fast Share. This feature is still in the development phase.