Androids and iPhones have never gotten along. They each had their own corner of the consumer playground and stayed there. If you wanted to share a file between them, you had to do it the clumsy, old-fashioned way of sending it as an attachment in a message or an email, or perhaps sending a link to a cloud storage folder where the file lives.
It had all the warmth and seamlessness of handing your lawyer a document to give to your ex’s document in a divorce. But now Google, owner of the Android operating system, has taken a big step toward warming the relationship by enabling Quick Share to link up with Apple devices through AirDrop.
a limited rollout
“We’ve heard from many people that they want a simpler way to share files between (Android and Apple) devices,” said Google in a post on its official blog on Thursday, November 20, 2025.
Quick Share, Android’s answer to Apple’s wireless AirDrop method of sending files from one Apple device to another across short distances, now works with Apple’s AirDrop. As of November 20, Google Pixel 10 devices can send files to Apple users.
Once the Android device reaches out via Quick Share to establish a connection with the Apple device and the Apple user accepts it, both devices can send and receive files. There’s a catch, though.
The Apple device’s AirDrop settings have to be set to “Everyone for 10 Minutes” mode, as Google explained in a separate blog post on November 20 that delves further into the details. “We built this with security at its core, protecting your data with strong safeguards that were tested by independent security experts,” says Google.
“It’s just one more way we’re bringing better compatibility that people are asking for between operating systems, following our work on RCS and unknown tracker alerts. We’re looking forward to improving the experience and expanding it to more Android devices.” We have no hint yet as to when Google will expand Quick Share’s Apple connectivity to those other devices, though.
This isn’t a total melding of Quick Share with AirDrop, but it’s a step toward cross-species cooperation that we’d thought a pipe dream until the announcement. Give it time. I’d be surprised if this icebreaker didn’t lead to further compatibility between Android phones and iPhones down the line.
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