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Business News/ Technology / Apps/  How apps are simplifying file sharing
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How apps are simplifying file sharing

Users can send images, videos, webpages or document to another smartphone or PC using these apps

Xiaomi’s Mi Drop (free; Android) is a lot easier to use and has a simple layout, compared to ShareIt.Premium
Xiaomi’s Mi Drop (free; Android) is a lot easier to use and has a simple layout, compared to ShareIt.

Sending photos or videos from one smartphone to another or from smartphone to PC wirelessly has become a lot easier and quicker than Bluetooth- or NFC-based file transfer. Apps such as ShareIt (free, Android) allow users to transfer large files in a matter of seconds by using a WiFi technology called WiFi Direct, present in most Android smartphones. While some of the apps have found a way to share high resolution files even when users are on slower networks.

Quick file transfer

When it comes to standalone apps for file transfer, ShareIt isn’t the only option around. Xiaomi’s Mi Drop (free; Android) is a lot easier to use and has a simple layout, compared to ShareIt. It shows Send and Receive buttons right on the homepage. To send files, just tap on the Send icon and wait until it detects the Mi Drop app on the receiver’s smartphone. Users can send music, images, apps and videos. Google’s Files Go (free; Android) works on similar lines, but its File transfer feature is tucked away in the Files page. To use this feature, users have to tap on send and wait for the receiver to tap on receive in the Files Go app on their screen.

Chat messengers

Popular messenger app Hike (free, Android, iOS) has a feature called Hike Direct. While Hike works online, the Direct feature works offline. It basically sets up a WIFi network between the two smartphones, within the Chat app, allowing users to share an image, song or video with another Hike user in the vicinity of 100 metres. To access this feature, tap on a contact and open the chat window, then head to the three vertical dot icon at top right of the screen and scroll down to Hike Direct in the pop-up window.

Photo storage and sharing

Google’s Photos app (free; Android, iOS) has made sharing high-resolution photos and videos in 4K resolution a lot easier for smartphone users. So if users are trying to upload and share a 4k image or video and the internet connection is slow, the app will modify the resolution and upload a low resolution version for the time being. When the connection and internet speed is good enough or there is a WiFi network available, the app will automatically replace the low resolution content with the original version.

Smartphone to PC

Users can also send or receive files from a smartphone to PC wirelessly using the same WiFi Direct feature. ShareIt allows users to send anything from a Word document or PDF to an image or video in a matter of seconds. Microsoft Launcher (free; Android) has a feature called Continue to PC feature which allows users to access content on a smartphone such as photos, document or webpages on their Windows PC.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Abhijit Ahaskar
Abhijit writes on tech policy, gaming, security, AI, robotics, electronics and startups. He has been in the media industry for over 12 years.
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Published: 11 Dec 2017, 02:55 PM IST
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