Exclusive: Quick Share is Samsung’s alternative to AirDrop for Galaxy phones

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Competition is huge in the phone industry, as we all know. Previously, the competition used to be restricted to hardware and who could have the best hardware, but we’ve progressed from that era. The area of real competition now is with software, and the software experience can now make or break purchase decisions, as companies like Apple and Google very well know. Some would argue the exclusive features Apple has is why they are one of the biggest phone brands. Well, Samsung is trying to match Apple’s features with some of its own implementations. The newest one of these features is Quick Share, Samsung’s upcoming alternative to Apple’s AirDrop.

Quick Share is slated to be a pretty simple and tool for quickly sending files between two Galaxy phones. We were able to get the APK running on a few different Galaxy phones but we were unable to get two files to transfer between the devices. The APK was not meant for our test devices so it’s not surprising it’s not working.

This will basically work like most of these other nearby sharing services. If you are near another user with a supported device, they will show up and you can share the picture, video, or file. You will have two options for sharing: contacts only or with everyone. “Contacts-only” will only allow you to share files with other Samsung Social users who you have in your contacts. “Everyone” will let you send or receive files from anyone with a supported device in your area.

Unlike other services like AirDrop, Quick Share will have a cloud aspect to it. Quick Share will let you temporarily upload files to Samsung Cloud. These files will then be streamed to Samsung Smart Things devices and downloaded locally. These files can be up to 1GB with a total of 2GBs being sent per day.

This service will likely be launching with the Galaxy S20+. We were able to get the APK for this service fro our source who has access to a Galaxy S20+ 5G. This app did not exist on any other One UI 1.0/1.5 or One UI 2 device that we checked. This service is going to likely come included on all devices launching with One UI 2.1 and later. This is also the type of service that I’d imagine would be available on most older Samsung devices with a software update, though its rollout would be entirely on Samsung.

Samsung isn’t the only company with a service like this on the market or in the works. Google is currently working on a feature called Nearby Sharing as part of the Google Play Services. This could theoretically support every supported Android phone and ChromeOS. Xiaomi and two-thirds of the BBK trifecta, OPPO and Vivo, also have a cross-platform sharing feature. Apple has had a robust file sharing solution for its devices for quite a few years now, so it’s good to see Android OEMs catching up with their own solutions. Users otherwise had to resort to third-party alternatives, but mileage tended to vary with such solutions. These first-party implementations might make the Android ecosystem as powerful and useful as the ecosystem Apple has spent years crafting.