AirDrop is very good at one thing: moving a file between two Apple devices that are near each other. The moment one of the devices is a Windows laptop or an Android phone, it is not an option. This guide looks at what to use instead, organised by which devices you are trying to connect.
Why AirDrop does not cross over
AirDrop uses Bluetooth to discover nearby devices and then sets up a direct Wi-Fi link between them using an Apple-specific protocol. Android's counterpart, Quick Share, works in a similar way with a different protocol. Historically the two have not been able to talk to each other. Some very recent Android phones have started to add AirDrop compatibility, but for most devices in use today the two systems remain separate.
Android to Windows: Quick Share
Google publishes a Quick Share app for Windows. Once it is installed and signed in, an Android phone can send to the PC from the normal share sheet, and the PC can send back. It is fast, works without internet, and is the closest thing to AirDrop for this pairing.
The catches: it needs installing on the PC, both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi must be on, and it does not help if anyone in the room has an iPhone or a Mac.
iPhone to Windows
There is no built-in wireless route here. Plugging the iPhone in with a cable lets Windows import photos through the Photos app, though it sometimes stalls on large libraries and may convert or skip HEIC images depending on the phone's settings. iCloud for Windows syncs photos if you already pay for enough iCloud storage. For anything else — a PDF, a voice memo, a video in its original format — a browser-based transfer or a cloud link is usually less trouble.
Android to Mac
Neither AirDrop nor Quick Share covers this one, and the older fallbacks — a USB cable or Bluetooth — no longer work between Android and macOS. What is left is covered in the Android to Mac guide.
Any device to any device: the browser
Every phone, tablet and computer has a web browser, which makes it the one thing all of them have in common. Browser-based tools such as LocalShare use that: open the same page on both devices, pick the file on one, download it on the other. The transfer runs directly between the two browsers over the local network.
Compared with AirDrop, the differences are:
- No proximity discovery. Devices find each other because they are on the same network, not because they are physically close. That means it works across the house, but not in a park with no Wi-Fi.
- Both sides open a page. There is no pop-up on the receiving device; the receiver chooses what to download.
- Nothing to install or sign in to. Useful on a work laptop where you cannot install software, or a friend's device you do not want to pair with permanently.
- More than two devices. A file shared once can be downloaded by every device on the network, which is handy for getting holiday photos to the whole family.
Cloud links
Uploading to Google Drive, OneDrive, iCloud or Dropbox and sending a link works across every platform and any distance. It is the right choice when the other person is not on your network. It is slower for big files because of the upload, it uses your storage quota, and the file stays on a third-party server until you remember to delete it.
Messaging apps
Sending a file to yourself or a family group in WhatsApp, Signal or Telegram is the reflex most people have. It is fine for a document. For photos and video, be aware that most messaging apps compress media by default — see sending video without compression for how to avoid that.
A quick reference
- Apple to Apple: AirDrop.
- Android to Android, ChromeOS or Windows: Quick Share.
- Android to Mac, iPhone to Windows, or a mix of everything: a browser-based transfer on the same Wi-Fi.
- Different locations: a cloud link, or a messaging app with the file sent as a document.
- No network at all, between different platforms: a USB stick. Most phones with USB-C can copy files onto one from their Files app.