Your Android phone can now share files with any iPhone using a Quick Share QR code

Home PhonesNews Quick Share just got a trick that makes cross-platform file sharing almost painless. Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends Sharing files between Android and iPhone has always been a pain, but Google is quietly fixing that. The company launched a new Quick Share feature that made Android devices compatible with Apple’s AirDrop, allowing users to easily transfer files between iPhones and Android devices. However, not all Android devices have the hardware to support Quick Share-AirDrop compatibility, which means not all Android smartphones can access this feature. To solve this problem, Google announced a new QR code-based file-sharing system, which allows any Android device to transfer files to iPhones. How does it work? With this new method, an Android phone generates a QR code for sharing files. The iPhone user scans it with the default Camera app, and the file is uploaded to the cloud and transferred to the recipient. Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends Note that anyone with access to the QR code can download the file without requiring any permission. So ensure that you only share the QR code with people you trust. I like that the whole experience is surprisingly smooth for something that has historically required third-party workarounds. Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends Who is this for? This feature is specifically designed for Android phones that don’t yet have native Quick Share-AirDrop compatibility built in. Instead of relying on a direct device-to-device connection, it uses QR codes and cloud transfers to move files between Android and iOS. Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends If you don’t see the feature on your device yet, don’t panic. Google said it will be fully available across all Android phones within the next month. On the native AirDrop compatibility front, Google also confirmed that it’s expanding support beyond Pixel and Samsung phones to include OPPO, OnePlus, Vivo, Xiaomi, and HONOR devices this year. Google is also planning to bring Quick Share inside third-party apps like WhatsApp soon. Between the QR code sharing and the expanding AirDrop compatibility, cross-platform file sharing is finally getting the attention it deserves. Rachit is a seasoned tech journalist with over seven years of experience covering the consumer technology landscape. Computing Your next free Google account might only come with 5GB of storage Google's free storage has been a competitive advantage over Apple's 5GB iCloud limit for years, but that’s changing. Google has quietly altered one of the most reliable promises in consumer tech: 15GB of free cloud storage. For years, signing up for a Google account meant getting 15GB of free storage, shared across Gmail, Drive, and Photos. However, that’s changed. New accounts are now defaulting to 5GB (same as iCloud), with the full 15GB available only if you have entered your phone number during setup. The prompt users are seeing reads: “Your account includes 5GB of storage. Now get even more storage space with your phone number.” Read more Computing Sony shows off AI-touched Xperia 1 VIII camera samples. It’s an epic self-own that I can’t digest Sony built the Xperia 1 series for people who know what a histogram looks like. Xperia Intelligence appears to have been built for everyone else, and the sample images make that tension impossible to ignore. Sony has a camera legacy that most brands, regardless of whether they make cameras or smartphones, dream of. The company rewrote what full-frame sensors could do with its Alpha series. That particular rendering of skin tones, that restraint with saturation, the commitment to accurate white balance; the company’s color science is precisely why cinematographers, videographers, and photographers like me, in the consumer tech space, swear by its color science and camera hardware. Read more Phones The Honor 600 Pro shows Samsung what an affordable flagship should look like The Honor 600 Pro outguns the Galaxy S25 FE on nearly every front. Samsung should be paying attention. Samsung has had a comfortable run with its Fan Edition line. The formula has always been straightforward: take the flagship experience, trim a few corners, drop the price, and watch buyers line up. For years, it worked because nobody was doing it better. The Galaxy S25 FE is proof that Samsung still knows how to execute that formula. It's also proof that the formula is no longer enough. Enter the Honor 600 Pro. A phone that, on paper and in the hand, makes the Galaxy S25 FE look like Samsung stopped trying. Read more