- In a surprising move, Google’s Quick Share now works with AirDrop
- Apple was apparently left in the dark and could try to shut it down
- Still, there are reasons to believe that Apple could leave the feature
In a surprise announcement yesterday, Google revealed that it had made its Quick Share feature compatible with Apple’s AirDrop when using a Pixel 10 device. In other words, you can now seamlessly share files between selected Android and iOS devices in a fast and secure way.
Reading Google’s press release, however, something interesting emerged: Apple apparently had no part in this announcement, and the company may not even have known it was coming.
After all, another Google blog post said the company would “welcome the opportunity to work with Apple” to enable more full-fledged Quick Share and AirDrop collaboration in the future, implying that Apple wasn’t part of the technical effort to make it work in the first place. That raises a key question: will Apple drop the Sword of Damocles and try to shut down the new feature?
Such actions by Apple would not be unprecedented. Back in 2023, messaging app Beeper reverse-engineered Apple’s iMessage platform to enable blue-bubble texting to work between iPhones and Android devices. Apple didn’t take too kindly to this kind of hacky engineering and forced Beeper to drop the feature.
Even if Apple isn’t actively forcing Google to retract its announcement, it’s unlikely that Tim Cook and co are happy to be blindsided like this (assuming there weren’t any behind-the-scenes discussions).
Apple loves to control the narrative and is fiercely protective of its proprietary technologies. Breaking down the company’s walled garden, taking AirDrop to places it was never meant to go, and announcing it to the world without Apple’s input all feel like an affront to the Apple we know so well. So what happens then?
Could this time be different?
That said, there are three important reasons to believe that Apple may actually hold fire and allow Google’s new project to continue, even if Apple isn’t working to actively improve the feature going forward.
First, there is the European Union (EU). Apple has been under relentless EU scrutiny for years over its ecosystem and allegedly anti-competitive practices, with much of the focus falling on features exclusive to Apple devices.
The EU wants Apple to make some of these technologies freely available to its competitors, so allowing Quick Share to work with AirDrop could be a way for Apple to reduce EU heat. This resulted in a new API called Wi-Fi Aware appearing in iOS 26, which lets third-party apps discover and connect to nearby devices via Wi-Fi—in other words, AirDrop alternatives.
Second, Google and Apple have been working much more closely together recently, sometimes more enthusiastically than others. The two collaborated to enable the RCS messaging standard to come to iOS, for example, while there are strong rumors that the upcoming AI-infused version of Siri will leverage Google Gemini to do some of the heavy lifting.
Finally, there is also the question of whether Apple is even able to block Google’s AirDrop move on a technical level. Several journalists, including The Verge’s Tom Warren, have speculated that AirDrop has no way to validate devices unless a user is in Contacts Only mode — which Google’s implementation avoids by sticking to AirDrop’s Everyone for 10 Minutes mode.
If correct, it would explain why various third-party AirDrop-to-Android hacks have been around for some time and would potentially leave Apple unable to stop Google’s move other than through diplomacy.
But given that such a move could result in the EU breathing down its neck, Apple is likely reluctant to follow that path. This could mean that both Android and Apple fans could get to use this new feature for the foreseeable future. Nothing’s guaranteed, though—maybe an Apple engineer can remove it by changing how AirDrop works—so keep your eyes open for updates.
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