Earlier today, Google made a surprise announcement that the Quick Share file transfer feature on Pixel 10 smartphones was able to work with AirDrop, enabling first-party file sharing between Android devices and Apple devices.
Typically, Apple and Google work together on cross-platform features, but it turns out that Apple had no involvement this time. Google created the Quick Share to AirDrop interoperability on its own, and apparently sprung it on Apple with a public announcement. From a statement Google provided to Android Authority:
We accomplished this through our own implementation. Our implementation was thoroughly vetted by our own privacy and security teams, and we also engaged a third party security firm to pentest the solution.
It's possible that Google gave Apple a heads up about its plan to devise an Android and iPhone file transfer solution, but Apple's total lack of participation in the announcement suggests that Apple wasn't interested in working with Google to develop it.
Google says that it is using its own implementation, and Apple's take on that is unclear. Apple has not historically supported third-party workarounds for interoperability between iPhone and Android devices, and it continually worked to put a stop to an iMessage for Android feature that Beeper attempted in 2023.
The Beeper situation does seem to have some parallels with Google's AirDrop move. Beeper reverse engineered Apple's iMessage protocols and encryption, using Apple's iMessage servers to allow Android users to send blue bubble messages to iPhone users. Apple was able to successfully shut down Beeper's messaging solution.
Google is a much bigger company than Beeper, and now that it has publicly announced and launched the Quick Share to AirDrop functionality, it would be harder for Apple to oppose it. Apple is also facing more intense regulatory pressure than it was even two years ago, so it might not want to kill the cross-platform file sharing feature.
File sharing was implemented with an interoperability layer between Quick Share and AirDrop that uses the Rust programming language, according to Google.
Google claims that it had a third-party pentest the security of the file sharing protocol, and that it worked to vet the solution with its own privacy and security teams. Google accompanied the announcement with a full blog post on the underlying security. Apple hasn't commented yet.
Apple and Google have previously worked together on several cross-platform features, including RCS messaging, unknown tracker identification and alerts, and SIM transfers.
