Free and Open Source Alternative to Airdrop

[cmiller1]

All of these "alternatives to airdop" don't seem to actually do what airdrop does, which is create an ad-hoc wireless connection. Airdrop isn't just a nice UI for sending files between people, it allows a wi-fi speed transfer between two devices that aren't connected to an existing network of that speed.

[spieglt]

Mine does! https://github.com/spieglt/flyingcarpet

[rollcat]

This. Airdrop is actually viable for transferring huge files, like RAW photos or ProRes footage. I've had video engineering professionals ask me if it's viable to implement Airdrop support in something like a camera or a recorder, not because it's pretty or doesn't need cables, but because it would save them time in a media workflow (they are busy people).

[j1elo]

Apple usually does excellent integrations between their devices. But I haven't used AirDrop so I'm not familiar with how it works: in order to create an ad-hoc wireless connection, if the devices were already connected to some wifi access point, are they temporarily disconnected for the duration of the ad-hoc connection?

If not, I'd guess that Apple devices maybe come with 2 WiFi adapters inside?

[moritzwarhier]

I admit the convenience is not the same, but this was already possible with my first Android phone (2011/12ish).

There was an app called "Wifi File Transfer" which would expose a web UI in the local network to download and upload files to the phone's storage.

First I only used it to upload music to my phone (faster than USB1.1 or even USB2).

Then I found out it also works fine when creating a WiFI AP/Hotspot and allowing other peers to connect to it.

[1vuio0pswjnm7]

"All of these "alternatives to airdop" don't seem to actually do what airdrop does, which is create an ad-hoc wireless connection."

Not all of them.

"Airdrop isn't just a nice UI for sending files between people, it allows a wi-fi speed transfer between two [Apple] devices that aren't connected to an existing network of that speed."

More precisely, WiFi Direct allows it.

There is no reason why one should not be able to use WiFi Direct to transfer files between Apple hardware and non-Apple hardware.

But Apple and Google, via iOS and Android, stop users from using WiFi Direct to do it.

WiFi Direct does not belong to Apple, or Google.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi_Direct

Everyone who buys a computer from these companies should be able to write applications that use WiFi Direct. The chips support it. The buyers own the hardware, not Apple or Google.

[davidbanham]

I routinely use airdrop to transfer mapping data when fighting bushfires in remote areas. There’s no network of any kind on most of these, but with a geocoded PDF map and Avenza we can still plot going edges, mark hotspots and dangerous trees, etc.

Being able to quickly squirt all of that, including photos, to another crew is a literal lifesaver.

[dotancohen]

  > create an ad-hoc wireless connection.

Every Android device I've used has had "Send via Bluetooth" functionality built in. Is the WiFi connection just significantly faster or does it provide other additional benefits?

[hulium]

You can create a hotspot and start a HTTP server. Scan a QR code to connect to the hotspot, then a QR code for the file URL. It's easy and works with any device with Wifi access.

For the server, on Android I use "Share via HTTP". On desktop running a lightweight HTTP server is easy too.

Edit:

Apparently that sounded complicated, here is how I can share a file from my phone to any other phone in the same Wifi.

- Click Share -> Share with HTTP.

- The app opens and shows a QR code.

- Other person scans the code. Their browser opens the file and they can do whatever they want with it.

If you have no Wifi:

- Open QR code for hotspot

- Other person scans QR code for hotspot, then for file.

If you still think it is too complicated, surely there is an opportunity create a simpler UI! From a technology perspective it does not have to be complicated.

[vifon]

So Wi-Fi Direct?

[asadalt]

this also gives you wifi speed actually. thanks for webrtc.

[albert180]

snapdrop.net does. It works locally in your network Peer2Peer

[amelius]

So Apple.com has built a connection that doesn't adhere to TCP/IP standards. Great engineering, people!

[Hnaomyiph]

If you need to send larger files via link, another hn user created https://www.relaysecret.com/ I use the tunnel service for the most part at https://www.relaysecret.com/tunnel It’s open source and you can host your own instance of it! https://github.com/santrancisco/relaysecret When Firefox send shut down I was looking for a good alternative and never really found sharedrop fit my needs.

[gpchelkin]

I've tried a lot of similar tools for sending files between devices in local area network and found that https://localsend.org works best. Yes, it requires an application installation, but the transfers are much more faster and reliable when browser is not involved. And its Android application works nicely on Google TV/Android TV, so I can send files there easily.

[SushiHippie]

For receiving you don't need to download an application. Localsend can act as an http server, where everyone can just access it through their browser.

[codethief]

How does localsend work exactly? I've read both their website and Github README as well as part of their protocol docs but I still have no idea. How does the initial device discovery work? For file transfer does it use the local wifi, some external server, …?

[tomasff]

If you already use Tailscale, Taildrop [1] works great.

[1] https://tailscale.com/kb/1106/taildrop

[ahmedfromtunis]

I wanted to use this, but reading the documentation, my understanding was that with tailscale data goes through a server.

Am I understanding it correctly?

EDIT

> This makes it a great solution for sending sensitive or large files without third-party servers in the middle.

It clearly says the opposite. I don't know where I got that idea from.

[escanda]

Tailscale looks nice. I acknowledge there is a lot of room for NAT traversal and alike tools. I am quite curious how do you manage network settings across your network. This could have served me well 10 yrs ago.

[HungSu]

From that doc:

> Taildrop is currently limited to sending files between your own personal devices. You cannot send files to devices owned by other users even on the same Tailscale network.

[bluish29]

I would recommend pairdrop [1] which works even in situations when you have Apple Private Relay or a VPN.

[1] https://github.com/schlagmichdoch/PairDrop

[appplication]

Curious seeing this basically right next to the Airdrop for Android post. I guess today we’re doing airdrop studies.

[TechSquidTV]

Imo this is a direct response given the other post costs money.

[wazoox]

I'm using KDE Connect on my phone, tablet and PCs. It works great to transfer files across devices, and adds some other benefits (clipboard sharing, using the phone as a trackpad or a presentation remote, reading SMS on the PC, etc).

[ahmedfromtunis]

För some reason it never managed to send more than 2 files from the computer to the phone. And I was never able to fix it.

On my tablet, however, it works flawlessly.

[asadalt]

similar: I have been using https://snapdrop.net/ for a few years now.

[Phenomenit]

Sharing files is great but what I’m looking for is simple QR code ephemeral chat. Like if a want to copy a link or password between my phone and some device. Tried a bunch of different ones that I’ve found on search but they’re clunky and kind of work.

[ahmedfromtunis]

I should check the code first, but my guess is that this is built using webrtc which was primarily created for realtime communication (including audio and video).

So my guess is that such feature can be easily added.

By the way, if you're using chrome, you can take share text directly via the clipboard. So that you can share from your phone, and immediately paste it in your computer, or vice versa.

By using kdeconnect (it has an Android app and a gnome extension), you have this done automatically. This means that you can copy a text in your phone, and paste it in your computer, as well as the other way around.

[talkingtab]

Interesting idea. The QR code part is good I think. I would be interested in what you tried, why it was clunky, ideas of how to make it usable. thanks!

[Flex247A]

Also check: https://localsend.org/

Apps are available for all platforms, and it's possible to achieve transfer over a LAN connection.

[chasil]

Nitroshare is OK. Local network only. Encryption and more prompting would be nice. Automatic startup at boot is a bad idea.

https://f-droid.org/en/packages/net.nitroshare.android/

For third-party transfers:

https://www.swisstransfer.com/ [up to 50mb]

https://filetransfer.io/ [much bigger limit]

[thrillgore]

"We're really sorry, but your browser is not supported. Please use the latest desktop or Android version of Chrome, Opera or Firefox."

I am using the latest Firefox though

[wccrawford]

I'm not a big fan of having to pay once for every computer I want to use something on. I'm just 1 person.

Also, making it free for Android but not PC seems... Wrong.

[hk__2]

What are you talking about? This tool is free for everyone.

[AnonHP]

My need is actually when I’m out somewhere fairly remote where there’s no WiFi Internet connection, but there’s either 4G or 5G data, the phones are running iOS and Android and are in close physical proximity with each other. Is there something that works for this device-to-device to send raw data with minimal friction and maximum security (don’t want the app to be sending the data elsewhere)?

[augusto-moura]

Pretty slow, but you can still use Bluetooth transfers. Other ways are to have an WiFi hotspot on one of the devices and use one of these alternative apps.

Some apps out there are even capable of opening a small HTTP server, so you can technically serve files on tether.

[leumon]

Would be cool if we sometime would get https://github.com/seemoo-lab/opendrop as an android app (but it would only work with rooted devices). This would allow to send and recieve files to iPhones from android via Apples Airdrop protocol.

[xyst]

Kind of cool. UX not as smooth as p2p file sharing with airdrop on Apple devices, but it works well enough.

I couldn’t get the “local network” feature to work though despite devices on both networks. Probably missing something. Had to send the link to myself.

[dang]

Related ongoing thread:

Show HN: I made an app people call "Airdrop for Android" - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39067040 - Jan 2024 (97 comments)

[Cupprum]

I am still missing why people are so crazy about airdrop. Sure, it seems nice, and is nice to interact with, but all my stuff is already in the cloud and i don't seem to need to share it very often with people around me. What are some of the use-cases you personally use airdrop for?

[Angostura]

Person A takes group Photo. Person B "could I have that"? Two people touch phones and hit accept.

[windowsrookie]

I put almost nothing in the cloud. So for me it's an easy way to transfer files between devices. I'm often moving files between two Macs.

When I go on a vacation with friends, they want a bunch of photos and videos that I took. So I can easily just airdrop them to my friends.

[1B05H1N]

Do you guys actually share this much locally?

I have my local sync'd to my cloud storage and just pull it down if/when I need it. I'll just email/text people around me if they don't have airdrop compatibility.

[function_seven]

For videos, yeah. When I'm in a room with friends, and one of them is already connected to their TV, it's much quicker to airdrop a large video file (say, 500MB) than it is to send it up to the Internet and have them download it. Aside from the better bandwidth, it's also much faster from the time I tap "Share" to the time it's appearing on their device.

For gifs or a funny photo or whatever, yeah I'll just text it.

[linkdd]

Back when I was teaching, I was using sharedrop to share the project files, slides, exam solutions (after the exam of course), etc... to my students.

I used to set up a local http server with `python -m http.server` until one of my student told me about sharedrop.io

[firtoz]

I'm trying to learn how to use Tiktok (yes, I know, I'm sorry) and other social media and cross-posting isn't really great and some platforms pretty much force you to post from mobile devices or vice versa (Tiktok, Instagram for mobile, LinkedIn for desktop web), and I need to pass source videos from mobile to editors on PC and back and forth for posting on the different media.. It's a big of a mess, I'm kinda sure there are crossposting services out there already, but it works for me so /shrug!

[windowsrookie]

Yes I do. I'm often moving files between two Macs and sometimes my iPhone. I have a few important documents and maybe 100 photos backed up in my free google drive storage, everything else is stored locally.

Email/Text has very small files size limits so that's not an option for me.

[andreicap]

Yes. I send pictures and videos (with original metadata/quality) to my friends and family, thus avoiding clutter in messaging apps.

[kleiba]

Genius name, for sure!