Windows 10's Version of AirDrop Lets You Quickly Share Files Between PCs (theverge.com)

Microsoft is testing its "Near Share" feature of Windows 10 in the latest Insider build (17035) today, which will let Windows 10 PCs share documents or photos to PCs nearby via Bluetooth. The Verge reports: A new Near Share option will be available in the notification center, and the feature can be accessed through the main share function in Windows 10. Files will be shared wirelessly, and recipients will receive a notification when someone is trying to send a file. Microsoft's addition comes just a day after Google unveiled its own AirDrop-like app for Android.

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[Hal_Porter]

Bluetooth file transfer is also pretty mature at this point. I've used it between Windows, Mac, and FreeBSD machines and with old Nokia and new Android phones (it probably works with iOS, though it didn't in the original iPhone). Pairing is a bit annoying, but once that's done it's basically drag and drop.

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I'm quite annoyed that Apple, Microsoft, and Google are all developing independent protocols for this though. I want an open protocol that works with all of my devices, not a mess of protocols where I can use one between my laptop and Android phone, one between my laptop and iPad, none between my iPad and Android phone, a different one between Windows devices, and so on.

Not sure why we need a new protocol when we've got OBEX.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Like you say it's supported by literally everything.

My Galaxy S5, Windows machine and Mac all support it. Even old feature phones did - in fact that's where it was invented.

As far as pairing goes it's not too bad now. With NFC you can tap to pair, though I've never owned two devices that support it. Even without it you can fiddle around in the GUI once to pair and then click OK on both devices - the PINs are synched automatically. It's about the minimum security that is viable to stop drive by downloads.

I.e this is a solved problem and there's no need for a new protocol. If it is more convenient it will necessarily be less secure. And a vendor specific protocol is obviously not going to be much use with a heterogeneous bunch of devices.

Also if you want more speed Android, Mac, Windows and Linux/BSD all support SMB networking over Wifi. So for a large file you can just copy to a mutually visible network share.