If you know Iphone you will also know AirDrop, the native system to share all kinds of files between apple devices wirelesslyAlthough this method does not work if what we want is to share files with our Windows PC, tablet or Android Smartphone, having to go to other means such as email or upload the content in the cloud and then download it on our other platform.
There is an alternative without limits called snapdrop and it is compatible with any device that has a built-in internet browser and Wi-Fi connection, here we explain how to do it step by step.
There are a wide variety of methods and ways to upload or share files over the internet, among some of them are cloud services such as Microsoft's Onedrive, Google's Drive, Dropbox or Amazon's own if you are a Prime member of its platform or methods such as Telegram or WhatsApp. If you have an iPhone things are simplified a lot with AirDrop, a proprietary technology from Apple with which to pass files wirelessly between Apple devices. The idea is to send files using the same wireless connection, so that these files do not pass through the Internet but go from device to device through the router.
AirDrop has become one of the most popular applications among apple users. If you have switched to Android or want an alternative In quiet Android, there are imitations developed to make life easier for us regardless of the platform or device we have, and in this way we can transfer our files over a short distance easily. It is snapdrop a free online service that does not require any installation.
Simple, Free and without any type of registration
Snapdrop Datasheet
Inspired by Apple Airdrop Snapdrop employs several familiar technologies to accomplish this purpose: HTML5, ES6, CSS3, WebRTC, Web Sockets, and NodeJS (HTML and CSS are technologies on which current web pages are based). This service runs directly from our internet browser, compatible with any modern browser, both desktop (Windows, Mac, Linux) and mobile devices (Android, iOS).
ES6 is the name it receives JavaScript, a programming language, such as HTML and CSS, that extends the functionalities of a web page. On the other hand WebRTC It is an open source technology that is designed to exchange data via P2P. Its use applies to voice calls, video calls or sending files.
By default it uses WebRTC for file sharing, and in the case of unsupported browsers, such as Safari or Internet Explorer, use Web Sockets.
File Transfer
The operation of snapdrop It is very simple, we open the web browser on the two devices that we are going to use, one to send and one to receive, the operation is the same in both directions.
Both devices must be connected to the same Wi-Fi connectionThus we will see in each browser the other device with the name of the operating system and browser. We just have to select that device and choose which file to send: documents, videos, audios, images ... What you want and the size you want.
In addition to sending and receiving files, Snapdrop also makes it easy to send and receive messages. It is not a very practical function considering that this service tries to share with nearby devices. But the option is there, we just have to press and hold on the other device and it will let us send a brief message.
The speed of the transfer will depend on the proximity of the device with the router and the bandwidth to which it is connected, Snapdrop is free, does not require registration, it does not save the files on any server, the app is encrypted and there is no capacity limit nor size of shared files. In my opinion it is a fairly stable and accessible system, even more so than many applications dedicated to that use.