The truth in the tech world, as in so many other worlds, is that everyone copies from everyone else. We often criticize Apple for copying from its competitors, but there are many cases where the opposite is true as well.

This is the case with AirDrop, an option that arrived with the wonderful Mac OS X Lion in 2011 and would soon be available on iOS. The idea, like many others that succeeded, was simple but brilliant: transfer files wirelessly to other devices without any configuration.

For a long time, Android mobile users didn’t have any official solution that could compete with Apple’s app. The closest I could come was Bump, a great idea from a startup that allowed you to do exactly the same thing, but with a different feature: initiating transfers I had to hit it a little (hence the name “bump” meaning “to bump lightly”) via mobile phone to the device we want to transfer the file to.

I used it as soon as I discovered it in 2012, and Bump’s popularity grew so much that Google itself bought the company in 2013. The idea was never there.

For a decade, iPhone, iPad, and Mac users had AirDrop, which was becoming increasingly capable of transferring files wirelessly; Android and Windows users had no clear alternative. There were third-party developments, but we always hoped Google would eventually copy Apple’s idea.

It started doing this with Nearby Share in 2023, but Samsung had tried this before, launching Quick Share in 2020. It seems both companies realized they were wasting their time struggling with the same two tools, and in January 2024 joint effort announced The feature took over its name from Samsung. That’s how today’s Quick Share was born.

Since its announcement, I have been using it frequently to transfer files between my Android mobile and my desktops (a computer with Windows 11 built-in and a Mac mini M1). Of course, it is even better for transferring files between Android devices, but the option to transfer them to a PC or Mac is particularly interesting and I can say nothing but good things about this feature.

Its operation is really simple and Basically a good clone of AirDrop On iOS/macOS. In fact, there are some interesting options, such as being able to control the level of privacy so that we can choose who can discover our device.

On Windows we’ll need to install Quick Share for this operating system – it’s important to update the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi drivers. There’s currently no official client on macOS, but there are alternative clients that will at least allow you to transfer files from Android devices to Mac.

The reverse option (sending files from Mac to Android) is not currently available. I use a client called NearDrop which does exactly this and when enabled on the Mac it will make a small icon appear in the top bar indicating that it is “listening”.

When sending files with Quick Share from an Android mobile device, a notification will appear This will notify us of this transfer attempt and from there we can accept or reject it from the little drop-down menu. That’s it.

Of course, there are alternatives to Quick Share/NearDrop. One of the most notable is LocalSend, a free, Open Source, and cross-platform app that lets you easily share files with nearby devices.

But, Having a local vehicle is always particularly beneficialand now it remains for Google to implement the official Quick Share client to offer an even more competitive option with Airdrop.

On Xataka | Sharing files between Android phones was already easy. Now it will be on laptops and TVs too