Before you can do that, though, you’ll first need to learn how to turn on AirDrop on iPhone and iPad. Thankfully, they’re both super simple and covered in detail below. When you set your AirDrop option to Everyone for 10 Minutes in iOS 16.2 or later, your option reverts to Contacts Only after 10 minutes.
If you want to share many files between your Mac and other Apple devices, see Transfer files from iPhone to a storage device, a server, or the cloud. Google’s Nearby Share app for Windows can be used to wirelessly transfer files to Android in a similar way as AirDrop. Download the Nearby Share app for Windows to get started.
- Also, just like on iOS, you can access AirDrop any time you see the Share button.
- Web links will automatically open in your default web browser, which for most people will be Safari.
- You can put your AirDrop receiving setting to Contacts Only or Receiving Off at any time to control who can see your device and send you content in AirDrop.
- Ever since switching from an Android phone to an iPhone two years ago, AirDrop has quickly become one of my favorite features within the Apple ecosystem.
- You can share files from your iCloud Drive, pictures from the Photos app, songs you’ve found on Apple Music, recordings from Voice Memos, and much more.
- For example, if someone uses AirDrop to send you a photo from the Photos app, it’s saved in the Photos app on your device.
You could also AirDrop from iPhone to iPhone, or to iPad, whether yours or someone else’s that’s nearby. Tap Contacts Only to ensure your device is only visible to contacts. Or tap Everyone to allow your device to be seen by any compatible devices nearby (you still have to accept any file transfers).
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Just make sure that both devices are signed in with the same Apple account. These are apps specifically designed to transfer files across platforms. Some require installs; others work via browser links. Windows and Android both have https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVNmdscs0YM-like services with almost identical names. Windows 10 and Windows 11 have a feature called “Nearby Sharing,” while Android’s feature is called “Nearby Share.” We’ll explain how both work, and how to transfer files between the platforms.
Unlike similar Android and Windows Phone solutions that require back-to-back NFC contact of your phones, AirDrop works entirely wirelessly over Bluetooth. It’s available on iPhones and iPads since iOS 7, and Macs since OS X 10.10 Yosemite. You can use it to send content between your own devices, or share it with someone else’s devices if they’re nearby.
If you want to AirDrop with people without adding each other to your contacts, you can always temporarily switch AirDrop to work with everyone, ignoring contacts. This works a bit like Android Beam on Android phones and tablets. However, it all works wirelessly over Bluetooth with no NFC contact required. A simple guide to pairing more than one set of wireless headphones to your iPhone or iPad to allow for audio sharing with family and friends. You can choose whether to accept AirDrop content from just your contacts, or from everyone.
How to AirDrop on an iPhone
Pick AirDrop from the offering option menu, and choose an AirDrop recipient. Tap the AirDrop option to control how AirDrop works. You can disable it, only enable AirDrop for people in your contacts (this is the default), or allow AirDrop for everyone. By default, AirDrop only makes you discoverable to people who are in your contacts list. If you want to AirDrop with people, they’ll need to add you to their contacts, and you’ll need to add them as a contact. This shouldn’t require much effort — if you’re doing this with someone you know, you’re probably already in each other’s contacts.
With iOS 17, Apple debuted a new way to AirDrop, called NameDrop. This lets you share contact information as well as photos and videos between two iPhones by just bringing them close together. The catch here is that both people will need iOS 17 or later and this only works on iPhones, not Apple’s other suite of products. Snapdrop is usually the quickest for photos and small files, as long as both devices are on the same Wi-Fi network. There are easy and secure workarounds that let you transfer files just as smoothly. In this article, I will show you how to “AirDrop” from iPhone to Windows using trusted tools like Snapdrop, iCloud, and third-party apps, no cables required.
How to use AirDrop on iPhone XS or earlier, iPad, or iPod Touch
While both are inspired by Apple’s AirDrop and use WebRTC for file transfers, they are built with different technologies and may offer slightly different features. Apple users can turn on AirDrop on their iPhone, iPad and Mac for wireless file transfer easily, which will use the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connection. By following the steps mentioned above, everyone can turn on AirDrop and use it without hassle. Even if you don’t how to turn on AirDrop, there are still alternative ways available to transfer data between Apple devices effortlessly. The all-round iPhone Data Transfer is particularly designed for Apple users to manage and transfer files between Apple devices and even across Windows platform.
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One such feature is known as “Drop”, which allows users to easily share files and messages between their devices, such as a phone and a desktop computer. AirDrop is a wireless file-sharing feature built into Apple devices that securely share your photos, videos, websites, locations, documents and other data with a nearby iPhone, iPad or Mac. It uses a combination of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to establish a peer-to-peer network between Apple devices, so the files can be transferred from one to another. AirDrop is an Apple feature that allows you to wirelessly transfer media between your iOS and Mac devices. It’s one of the most painless Apple Continuity features; it’s easy to use and works exactly as it should.