Last year Apple finally added support for Rich Communications Services (RCS) text messages on its platforms, improving consistency, reliability and safety when exchanging text messages with green bubbles between the competing iPhone and Android ecosystems. Today Google is announcing another small step forward in compatibility, pointing to a less frustrating future for groups of friends or families where not everyone has an iPhone.
Google updated Android Quick Share supports Apple AirDrop, which allows Apple device users to share files directly using a local peer-to-peer Wi-Fi connection. Apple devices with AirDrop enabled and 10-minute everyone mode will appear in the Quick Share device list just like other Android phones, and Android devices that support this new version of Quick Share will also appear in the AirDrop menu.
Google will only support this feature on the Pixel 10 series, at least to begin with. The company “looks forward to improving this experience and bringing it to more Android devices,” but hasn't announced anything about a timeline or any hardware or software requirements. Quick Share also won't work with AirDrop devices running in “contacts only” mode by default, although Google “[welcomes] opportunity to work with Apple to enable Contacts Only mode in the future.” (Reading between the lines: Google and Apple are not currently working together on this, and Google confirmed to The Verge that Apple was not involved at all.)
Like AirDrop, Google notes that files shared through Quick Share are transferred directly between devices, without first being sent to any company's servers.
Google shared a little more information in separate post about Quick Share securitythanks to Android's use of the memory-safe programming language Rust, which made it possible to securely share files between platforms.
“Its compiler enforces strict ownership and borrowing rules at compile time, which ensures memory safety,” writes Google vice president of platform security and privacy Dave Kleidermacher. “Rust removes entire classes of memory-related bugs. This means our implementation is inherently resistant to attackers attempting to use maliciously crafted data packets to exploit memory bugs.”
