Google could be bringing its Quick Share tool to iOS and macOS. The convenient and fast file-sharing tool may need to play nicely with Apple's restrictive policies.
Formerly known as Nearby Share, Quick Share arrived in 2020. It's a file-transfer service that lets users quickly move any number of files over a local network connection.
iOS is one of the leading smartphone operating systems that's exclusive to iPhones. Still, Quick Share isn't even available as a standalone app on the Apple Store. Android users have to find another solution if they want to share files with anyone who has an iPhone.
Apple is quite restrictive about iOS and the backend processes. In other words, iOS and macOS are closed-source or proprietary operating systems. This could be one of the reasons why tools such as Quick Share don't work on these platforms.
Quick Share is one of the best and easiest tools to move files between Android phones. It is also available on Chromebooks and even Windows PCs can utilize Quick Share after installing the tool.
Quick Share is built on top of Nearby Connections, which is a peer-to-peer networking API that lets apps "easily discover, connect to, and exchange data with nearby devices in real-time, regardless of network connectivity." The source code for Nearby Connections is easily and openly available on GitHub under Google's Nearby repository. Google engineers improve the platform, fix bugs, and add new features to Quick Share regularly.
In one of the bug fixes, Android Authority discovered references to iOS and macOS. Mishaal Rahman spotted a potential clue suggesting that Google is working on bringing Quick Share to iOS and macOS.
Google hasn't made any official announcements about Quick Share coming to iOS and macOS. Moreover, the company would have to make several changes to integrate Quick Share into Apple's ecosystem and work in accordance with Apple's App Store and privacy policies.
Interestingly, OnePlus has already laid the groundwork. According to Phone Arena, in the recently introduced OxygenOS 15, there's a feature called "Share with iPhone".
OnePlus essentially created a dedicated iOS app. While installing yet another app could be a minor convenience, it dwarfs in comparison to the possibility of easily transferring files between an Android device and an iPhone or MacBook computer.