A quick look at cross-platform file sharing
2024-12-08
I hate to admit it, but especially in everyday situations where you need to quickly share files between devices, proprietary features like Apple's AirDrop can be really handy. Luckily, even for those of us who are not willing to afford Apple devices or have to deal with different ecosystems, some easy-to-use and free solutions for instantaneous file sharing via the local network exist. So, let's take a quick look at my favorite two of them - Snapdrop and LocalSend...
First and foremost, we should be on the same page about the working principle and thus use-case for these solutions. Unlike with big cloud providers, you don't upload your files to a centralized server, which then distributes the file to new devices - instead your devices connect locally from peer to peer and transfer the data this way. This allows you to instantly share files without much preparation or delays from first having to upload the data, but also means that it is quite inefficient for big files or sharing data with many devices. For such use-cases, you're still clearly better off with using a centralized file sharing solution of your choice. Nonetheless, this approach is ideal for quickly moving files between devices on the go and certainly has a right to exist.
Unfortunately, none of the popular proprietary solutions like AirDrop or Google's NearbyShare (now also called QuickShare) is available across all platforms - making it only useful for certain types of OS combinations. Thankfully, the open source community has stepped in and created many wonderful solutions that truly work across all common platforms and are also free to use. Probably the most well-known of them is Snapdrop - a website you open on two or more devices in the same network and that transfers files between them peer to peer without any software installation. This is really handy, since it works in every browser with support for WebRTC - but also limits its feature set a bit and can be buggy depending on the browser combination used. This is where LocalSend steps in and offers an equally flexible as well as easy-to-use solution that certainly works since it uses dedicated apps on all platforms to transfer the data. It again uses WebRTC under the hood and thus makes sure to encrypt your data, but also goes a step further featurewise. For example, it offers you the ability to mark devices as favorites and shows you a progress bar for big files - both of which Snapdrop lacks.
So the next time you need to move files between devices, certainly make sure to give one or both of these solutions a go - you might even be able to impress some Apple users with an equally nice solutions that doesn't come from Cupertino. With that said, feel free to share your thoughts, experiences and recommendations in the comments down below, have a lovely day and until next week...