Android and iPhone don’t normally play nice, but Google seems keen on untangling one mess: AirDrop support, with the feature now supported on the Pixel 10 range.
There’s a clear difference between the current iPhone range and every other phone, and Android is it.
Only Apple phones come with iOS, while Google’s Android operating system can run on pretty much any other mobile device, whether it’s Android for phones, Android for cars, Android for watches, Android for tablets, or even the new take of Android for mixed reality headsets.
Each is different, and so perhaps unsurprisingly, the tech and features between them don’t often play nicely together. Some phone makers can get around some of these issues, such as how Nothing has managed to get AirPods working on its phones with improved compatibility, but basically iPhone features almost never work on Android.
But that could be changing.
Google has added a feature for Android specifically on the Pixel 10 range that allows you to make Android’s QuickShare feature compatible with AirDrop on the iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
Simply make each device available to everyone for ten minutes, and then look for an iPhone, iPad, or Mac to share files on the Pixel with, and voila, your Apple-made device will be able to see those files and download them.
We’ve tested the process both on iPhone and Mac, and in each instance, our Apple devices were able to download images directly from a Pixel 10 model, such as the Pixel 10 Pro Fold we recently reviewed and tested this process with.
It’s one of those positive things that could mean the days of platform-specific features are starting to wind down. Here’s hoping that means eventual Apple Watch compatibility on an Android, though we wouldn’t put too much faith into that happening in the short term, if ever at all.
