[HN Gopher] AirDrop support for Pixel 10 likely exists because o...
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AirDrop support for Pixel 10 likely exists because of the EU ruling
Author : joejohnson
Score : 70 points
Date : 2025-11-26 21:24 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (9to5google.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (9to5google.com)
| ChrisArchitect wrote:
| [dupe] More discussion:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45994854
| input_sh wrote:
| That's not a dupe, that's related. That provides no EU/DMA
| context.
| Dylan16807 wrote:
| It's _related_ , but a feature announcement and a look into why
| that feature exists are different topics.
| jeroenhd wrote:
| An additional benefit is that the Wi-Fi standard also means that
| the weird account requirements on Google's Nearby Share can be
| avoided by independent implementations (i.e. on Windows or Linux
| or maybe rooted Android, iOS and macOS already have it of
| course).
|
| "Contacts only mode" will always be a challenge, but at least the
| "I just want to share a file without Google watching me" use case
| is now resolved by Google implementing a standard that doesn't
| involve them.
|
| Unfortunately, this is Pixel 10 exclusive for now, for some
| reason. I expect Samsung to pick this up eventually as well, but
| I'm not sure if Google will be able to backport this tech through
| Google Play Services the way they did with Nearby Share on older
| phones.
| gertop wrote:
| Have you confirmed that the new feature works without an
| account or is that speculation?
|
| The account requirement for nearby share never made sense yet
| they still did it the way...
| sorenjan wrote:
| Qualcomm has confirmed it's coming to Snapdragon phones
| soon[0], which maybe hints that it's dependent on the SoC
| drivers? Samsung uses a mix of Snapdragon and their own Exynos,
| but I can't see them not releasing it to their Snapdragon
| phones when others do, and then they pretty much have to
| release it to their Exynos phones too.
|
| [0] https://www.notebookcheck.net/Qualcomm-confirms-Quick-
| Share-...
| madeofpalk wrote:
| People keep mentioning Wi-Fi Aware with this, but so far haven't
| seen anyone actually _prove_ that this is the case.
|
| Apple undoubtedly added Wi-Fi Aware support to iOS
| https://developer.apple.com/documentation/WiFiAware, but its not
| clear whether iOS actually supports AirDrop over Wi-Fi Aware.
| Apple clearly hasn't completely dropped AWDL for AirDrop, because
| you can still AirDrop from iOS 26 to earlier devices.
|
| Note that the Ars Technica article never directly makes the claim
| that Apple supports Airdrop over Wi-Fi Aware. The title is two
| independent statements - "The EU made Apple adopt new Wi-Fi
| standards, and now Android can support AirDrop" - that's true.
|
| > _Google doesn't mention it in either Quick Share post, but if
| you're wondering why it's suddenly possible for Quick Share to
| work with AirDrop, it can almost certainly be credited to
| European Union regulations imposed under the Digital Markets Act
| (DMA)._
|
| Again, they're just theorising. They never directly make the
| claim. Would love on Hacker News for someone to do some Hacking
| and actually figure it out for real!
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(page generated 2025-11-26 23:00 UTC)