How to Share Files Between iPhone and Android

The Wall Between iPhone and Android

Apple and Google have both built file sharing into their platforms. AirDrop works between Apple devices. Google's Quick Share (formerly Nearby Share) works between Android and Chrome OS. Neither works with the other platform.

This isn't a technical limitation. Both protocols use similar underlying technology: Wi-Fi Direct for the actual data transfer, Bluetooth LE for discovery. The barrier is a business decision. Apple wants you to buy another iPhone. Google wants you to stay on Android. Cross-platform file sharing doesn't serve either company's interests, so they don't build it.

I own an iPhone 15 running iOS 26.2 and a Redbeat D5 (budget Android 14 phone, 6GB RAM) that I use for cross-platform testing. Getting files between these two devices without a computer in the middle should be simple. It took me an embarrassing amount of trial and error to find a reliable method.

What Went Wrong: Bluetooth File Transfer

The first thing most people try is Bluetooth. It's on both phones, it should work, right?

Android supports Bluetooth file transfer natively through the OBEX protocol. You can send any file to any Bluetooth device that accepts it. iOS, however, does not support OBEX file transfer. Apple locked down the Bluetooth stack years ago. You can pair an iPhone with an Android phone for audio (headphones, car stereo), but you cannot send files over Bluetooth between them.

I spent 20 minutes confirming this when I first tested the Redbeat D5 with my iPhone 15. The Android phone showed the iPhone in its Bluetooth list, I tapped "Send file," selected a photo, and got a "Transfer failed" error. The iPhone never even displayed a file transfer prompt. It wasn't a connection issue; the protocol just doesn't exist on the iOS side for arbitrary file transfer.

This rules out Bluetooth entirely for iPhone-to-Android file sharing. Don't waste your time pairing them.

The Cloud Workaround (And Why It's Slow)

The next approach most people land on is uploading to a cloud service and downloading on the other device. Google Drive, iCloud Drive, Dropbox, or OneDrive. All of these work, technically.

I tried Google Drive for a 1.2GB video file shot on the iPhone. The upload from iPhone to Google Drive took about 4 minutes on my home WiFi (limited by my ~35 Mbps upload speed in Greenville, SC). Then downloading it on the Redbeat D5 took another 45 seconds. Total time: just under 5 minutes for a file between two phones sitting on the same table.

For a single photo or document, cloud transfer is fast enough. For videos, project files, or batches of photos, the upload bottleneck makes it painfully slow. The file has to leave your local network entirely, travel to Google's data center, and come back. You're paying the full round-trip tax even though the destination device is within Bluetooth range.

There's also the storage quota issue. Google gives 15GB free, iCloud gives 5GB. If you're moving large video files regularly, you'll hit limits fast.

Messaging Apps: Compression Is the Enemy

Some people share files through messaging apps. iMessage, WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord. This works for casual sharing, but every one of these apps compresses media files.

WhatsApp compresses video heavily, often cutting quality by 60-70%. iMessage doesn't work with Android at all (it falls back to SMS/MMS, which is even worse). Telegram preserves quality if you explicitly choose "Send as File" instead of the default media attachment, but it still uploads to Telegram's servers first.

Discord is the one I used to rely on before building OpenDrop. Upload a file to a channel, download on the other device. File quality is preserved for most file types. The problems: 25MB file size limit for free users (100MB with Nitro), and the file round-trips through Discord's servers. For a 500MB video, you're looking at a multi-minute upload on a typical home connection.

I was literally uploading files to a private Discord server and downloading them on the other device as my main file transfer method. That's when I decided the problem needed a real solution.

What Actually Works: Direct Transfer Apps

The solution is a cross-platform transfer app that sends files directly between devices without routing through a cloud server. Several exist. I'll cover the ones I've actually tested.

OpenDrop is the one I built. Install the iOS app (App Store) and Android app (Google Play). Both devices find each other automatically via mDNS (_opendrop._tcp.local. on port 8000) when on the same WiFi. Select files, tap send, and the transfer goes directly between phones at LAN speed. No upload wait, no compression, no file size limit up to 10GB.

The 1.2GB video that took 5 minutes through Google Drive transferred in about 12 seconds over my home WiFi. Original quality, no compression, no cloud server involved.

When the phones aren't on the same network (one on WiFi, one on cellular), OpenDrop's remote mode kicks in. Free users get 5MB chunked transfers through a Cloudflare tunnel at ~8 Mbps. Pro users get full-speed streaming through the Fly.io relay at 30-50+ Mbps.

LocalSend is a similar option, also open-source. It handles LAN transfers well and uses a comparable mDNS discovery approach. The main limitation: it's LAN-only with no remote transfer mode. If your iPhone is on WiFi and your Android is on cellular, LocalSend can't connect them.

SHAREit and Xender are popular in some regions. Both work but come with aggressive ads and privacy concerns. SHAREit has been flagged by multiple security researchers for data collection practices. I'd avoid them for privacy reasons alone.

My Current Setup for iPhone-Android Transfers

After trying everything above, here's what I actually use day to day.

For quick transfers between my iPhone 15 and the Redbeat D5, I open OpenDrop on both phones. Both are usually on my home WiFi, so the mDNS discovery connects them in about 3 seconds. I select files on the sending phone, tap the other device, and watch the progress bar fill. A batch of 50 photos takes about 8 seconds. A 2GB video takes under 30 seconds.

When I'm testing remotely (phone on cellular in Greenville, SC, the other on WiFi at home), I use the remote transfer mode. Pro relay streaming handles it well enough that I don't even think about switching methods. The same files, same process, just a bit slower because the data crosses the internet instead of staying local.

For sharing a single photo with someone else (not my own device), I still use messaging apps. Telegram with "Send as File" preserves quality, and the recipient doesn't need to install anything new. But for my own devices, a direct transfer app saves so much time that going back to the cloud upload dance feels absurd.

The fundamental problem, that Apple and Google don't let their file sharing features talk to each other, isn't going away. Both companies have too much incentive to keep their walled gardens intact. Third-party apps that bridge the gap are the only real solution, and they work well enough that the platform lock-in doesn't matter for file sharing anymore.