- Samsung appears to be adding AirDrop to older Galaxy devices
- Follows the arrival of AirDrop to the Samsung Galaxy S26 series
- The feature allows Android users to share files to and from iOS products
Apple is known for blocking key features of its iOS operating system and preventing them from spreading to rival devices, but cracks have recently started to appear. Although this could mean easier file sharing for certain Android users, there is one important issue to keep in mind.
First, Google announced that it had gotten Apple’s AirDrop sharing feature to work on Android. Then, in early March, news broke that Samsung was adding AirDrop support to its Galaxy S26 series. Now, that extends to more Samsung devices, including the Galaxy Z Fold 7, Galaxy S22, Galaxy S23, Galaxy S24, and Galaxy S25.
In case you don’t know, Apple’s AirDrop tool allows you to quickly and securely share files between two Apple devices. You can share from one iPhone to another, between an iPad and a Mac, or any combination of the two. There is no file compression and you can block it only to people in your contacts, preventing unwanted file sharing.
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For years, AirDrop has been exclusive to Apple. That all changed in late 2025, however, when Google revealed that it had brought AirDrop to Android, presumably without Apple’s express permission, given how protective Apple is of its features and how the company didn’t make a joint announcement with Google. While this may have led some observers to wonder how long AirDrop would remain on Android, it appears that it is actually expanding, at least for the time being.
However, rather than being a similar AirDrop add-on for the best Android phones, Samsung’s implementation works as an extension of the existing Quick Share feature. That means the option to share items with iPhone users appears within Quick Share, not as a separate tool or app. That helps simplify things while also adding cross-platform compatibility.
What’s the trick?
But before you get too excited about the new feature on your Android phone, there’s a little problem: the feature may not be fully operational yet.
For example, in a Samsung community support thread and below a post by Android expert Tarun Vats on X, several users claimed that although they saw an option to use AirDrop on their Samsung phones, the feature didn’t actually work.
Other users said that the option to send files to iPhone users via AirDrop was missing from their devices, even after installing the Quick Share update. This is reminiscent of Google’s AirDrop implementation, which was also buggy.
However, not everyone is struggling. On Reddit, many people claimed that the feature had appeared and was working for them after testing. So it seems there is a strong element of luck in deciding whether or not you see the feature and, if you do, whether or not it actually works for you.
That suggests Samsung is still ironing out the kinks in its AirDrop implementation. We will have to see if it is solved and if it spreads to other Android devices in a short time.
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