AirDrop only works between Apple devices, and Nearby Share only works between Android devices — which is a problem the moment you need to send a photo from an iPhone to an Android phone, or the other way around. Bluetooth transfer is slow and unreliable for anything larger than a few photos, and most other options mean going through a third-party app or a cloud account.
A cross-platform option that needs no app
Because FileTransferX runs entirely in the browser, it works the same way regardless of which phone’s operating system is on either end.
- On the sending phone, open filetransferx.com and choose Send Files.
- Select the photos, videos, or files to send.
- On the receiving phone, open filetransferx.com and choose Receive Files.
- Scan the QR code shown on the sending phone’s screen, or enter the short code manually.
- Accept the files on the receiving device to start the transfer.
Since both devices are just using their browsers, it doesn’t matter whether one is an iPhone and the other is a Samsung, a Pixel, or any other Android phone.
Good for one-off transfers between friends
This is particularly useful for the common case of sending someone a photo when you don’t have their number saved, don’t want to create a shared album, and don’t want to email a 40MB video. Pair once with a code, send the files, and there’s nothing left to clean up afterward — no shared link, no album to remove someone from.
Works between more than just phones
The same cross-platform advantage applies to phone-to-computer and computer-to-computer transfers too — Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS can all send to and receive from each other through the same browser-based flow.