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Google launches unauthorized Pixel-to-iPhone file sharing via Apple’s AirDrop

MacDailyNews

Nov 21

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Google, owned by Alphabet Inc., has announced that its newest Pixel phones can now send images and other files directly to iPhones using Apple’s proprietary AirDrop feature — a direct challenge to one of the most prominent barriers in Apple’s tightly controlled ecosystem.

AirDrop, a wireless file-sharing technology introduced by Apple more than ten years ago, is deeply integrated into iOS, iPadOS, and macOS, enabling quick and seamless transfers between iPhones, iPads, and Macs.

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“When it comes to sharing moments between family and friends, what device you have shouldn’t matter — sharing should just work,” Google said in a surprise announcement on Thursday. Apple had no part in the feature’s development, a Google spokesperson said in response to a Bloomberg News inquiry.
“We accomplished this through our own implementation,” the spokesperson said, adding that Google engaged a third-party security firm and that the setup was “thoroughly vetted by our own privacy and security teams.”
“This feature does not use a workaround; the connection is direct and peer-to-peer, meaning your data is never routed through a server, shared content is never logged, and no extra data is shared,” wrote Dave Kleidermacher, vice president of platforms security and privacy at Google, in a separate blog post.
To receive files from friends and family using Android phones, iPhone users must configure their AirDrop settings to show them as a recipient to “everyone for 10 minutes.” Like any regular AirDrop transfer, users can accept or deny an incoming request based on the name of the sender that appears on their screen. For the time being, a device from Google’s recently released Pixel 10 line is required.

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MacDailyNews Take: Apple should shut this down via software update immediately. And, furthermore, Apple should cease attempting to work with perpetual iPhone copycat Google on underpinning Siri with Google’s inferior Gemini AI and use a better AI instead. Since Apple product and services users deserve the very best, we recommend that Apple grow a pair and use the best AI available: xAI’s Grok.

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