warpinator VS NearDrop

Warpinator

I don't know. After discovering PairDrop too, thanks to comments here, I've been testing it out to see if it could replace Warpinator [1] as a means to send files & directories between my PC and my Android phone when I'm at home.

First impression has been quite disappointing... I installed the PWA to my phone's home screen. Then opened up and paired with my PC as trusted device. Tried to send a PDF file from PC to phone, a dialog shows up with

File Received. PC has sent: file.pdf. Close/Download.

Upon clicking Download, Firefox (which is configured in Android as the default web browser) opens up, on the Homepage tab. Nothing else happens, and the file isn't downloaded. So I'm left pretty much confused about what should have happened vs. what did actually happen.

Good thing about Warpinator (and something I use a lot) is that you can enable accepting files without confirmation, and then you can drag & drop a whole folder to have it appear on the other device as-is. Something extremely useful but that I doubt web apps can achieve.

[1]: https://github.com/linuxmint/warpinator

They have linked the unofficial version in their GitHub repo https://github.com/linuxmint/warpinator

You can then use Syncthing or Warpinator alongside it to sync them to other devices.

Other than those you mentioned, there is Warpinator. It works flawlessly for me. You need to create a hotspot manually if there is no internet.

> I wish quick share (né nearby share) was available on linux (even if via chrome).

I made NearDrop, which is a macOS implementation of Nearby Share: https://github.com/grishka/NearDrop

And of course, someone tried to reimplement it for other OSes: https://github.com/PlutoHDDev/CrossDrop

2. NearDrop

> So what happens is that I gravitate to other ecosystems.

I use a Mac but an Android phone. Android because I require the ability to install apps from arbitrary sources, including piracy. Mac because modern Windows is so contemptuous towards its users, and desktop Linux falls apart unless you know the intricacies of its internals.

Anyway, transferring files between the two was a pain in the butt that eventually grew so immense I reverse engineered Google's Nearby Share and made this: https://github.com/grishka/NearDrop

Though yes, I'm not North American so iMessage is just a non-issue to me. I don't know anyone who uses it. Anyone hardly uses SMS for actual messaging between people, everyone's SMS inbox is 95% OTP codes and various other automatic notifications. Literally everyone who I communicate with is reachable through Telegram.

Nearby Share isn't locked down and, in fact, works just fine with zero Google involvement. Google only needs to be involved for limited device visibility and all the phone number stuff that entails.

Here's the protocol docs I wrote: https://github.com/grishka/NearDrop/blob/master/PROTOCOL.md

I usually use NearDrop which is compatible with nearby sharing. https://github.com/grishka/NearDrop

I don't necessarily back up my android to my Mac. I keep both environments separate, however, you can try this or this looks interesting but seems like some elbow grease involved

I made one recently

Not officially but someone did make this