Samsung confirms latest Galaxy phones will support AirDrop compatibility – and Im thrilled

Prakhar Khanna/ZDNET Follow ZDNET:Add us as a preferred sourceon Google. ZDNET’s key takeaways Samsung is rolling out AirDrop/Quick Share capability to the S26 series. Coming to Korea first on 3/23, and the US later in the week. Will roll out compatibility to other Galaxy devices at a later date. A few months ago, Google introduced…

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Prakhar Khanna/ZDNET

Follow ZDNET:Add us as a preferred sourceon Google.

ZDNET’s key takeaways

  • Samsung is rolling out AirDrop/Quick Share capability to the S26 series.
  • Coming to Korea first on 3/23, and the US later in the week.
  • Will roll out compatibility to other Galaxy devices at a later date.

A few months ago, Google introduced a new feature that allowed Pixels to transfer files and photos to Apple devices via Quick Share, which uses AirDrop.

This is a very big deal because previously, the options to share data between iOS and Android were not great. You could text a file, email it, or, if you’re me, you could use Google Photos links, which work super well with my mom, except it really, really doesn’t.

Also: How to AirDrop on Android to iPhone (and which models support the file-sharing feature)

All this is not nearly as easy as AirDrop. It requires the receiving phone to be set to “Everyone for 10 minutes,” and then it works…most of the time. It would be best if we could all just wave our phones at each other and transfer data like you can from iPhone to iPhone, but we’ll take what we can get.

Until now, this capability has been limited to Google Pixel phones, but Samsung announced today that it is coming to the S26 lineup starting tomorrow in Korea and later in the week in the US. Further, the capability will be rolled out to all Galaxy devices “at a later date.”

Democratizing file sharing

Prakhar Khanna holding the iPhone 17 Pro Max and Galaxy S26 Ultra.

Prakhar Khanna/ZDNET

This is pretty huge for this industry because, beyond Apple, Samsung takes up the lion’s share of the smartphone market in the U.S. and abroad. So, bringing AirDrop compatibility via Quick Share is a massive way to increase adoption and awareness of the utility. Of course, the rollout will be limited to people who have the S26 series initially, so that’s not quite as exciting, but Samsung compatibility will give this movement legs.

Also:Apple wasn’t at the world’s biggest Android show – but its influence was all I could see

Plus, this is great news for those who use MacBooks along with Galaxy smartphones, which is not as small an audience as you might think. The current file transfer method from Android to a MacBook uses an app called “Android File Transfer,” which is not a good app. “Quirky” would be a good way to describe its behavior. It’s largely why I usually rely on Google Photos or Google Drive to move files between devices.

In related news, Oppo recently announced that it would open up the same capability. Meanwhile, Honor demonstrated its ability to transfer files between Honor phones and Apple devices. It was one of the ways Apple influenced MWC without showing up. There is clearly a demand for this to happen. It turns out that Google rolling this out for Pixels was just the opening act.

Great first steps

Once this spreads to all Android phones, it will enable easier file sharing between devices regardless of platform. Bringing the capability to a massive ecosystem like Galaxy will help those seeds take root among the smartphone-toting populace, bringing us one step closer to being platform agnostic — at least from a file-sharing standpoint.

Of course, this might be better if Google and Apple could work together to make the integration more seamless. So far, Apple has been silent about this capability, though it has allowed it to exist for this long, so perhaps that points to a more cooperative future.

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