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is a senior reviewer with over a decade of experience writing about consumer tech. She has a special interest in mobile photography and telecom. Previously, she worked at DPReview.
When Google announced it had engineered AirDrop compatibility for its Pixel 10 phones late last year, the pessimists among us figured it would be a matter of days before Apple shut it down. But not only is it still working, Google has expanded the capability to the Pixel 9 series (minus the budget-oriented Pixel 9A).
As with Pixel 10 phones, owners of (almost all) Pixel 9 phones will be able to send and receive files a little more easily with Apple devices. Files sent from a Pixel to an iPhone, Mac, or iPad will appear as AirDrop transfers. On the Android side, files are handled through Quick Share. The receiving Apple device needs to be discoverable to anyone — you can set a ten-minute time limit on this — and the Pixel likewise needs to be discoverable to all or in receive mode. With that done, all that’s required is a tap to accept the transfer and you’re on your way to cross-platform-sharing-bliss.
That is, unless you’re the owner of a Pixel 9A — you’ll need to use plain Bluetooth or some other old-fashioned method. I asked Google why the 9A is excluded from AirDrop support, and communications manager Alex Moriconi said only that they’re “looking forward to improving the experience and expanding it to more Android devices over time.” So if you want to be glass half full about it, the 9A could still be included in a future update. In the meantime at least, I’m feeling pretty optimistic that this AirDrop compatibility is sticking around for the long-term.
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