In summary
- Qualcomm gives hope of wider Android AirDrop support
- Coming “in the near future”
- Follows Google and Nothing revealing plans
After making its debut on Pixel 10, it’s been confirmed that AirDrop support is coming to all Android smartphones.
Last week we reported on the exciting news that the Google Pixel 10 was receiving support for Apple’s AirDrop function, enabling you to seamlessly share files between Android and iOS.
Now we’ve learned that the rest of the Android community will be gaining this AirDrop support soon.
Chip maker Qualcomm has taken to X to announce that the feature will be coming to Snapdragon-powered phones (that’s the majority of Android devices) “in the near future”.
The future of AirDrop on Android
Naturally, this is only a very vague promise. It doesn’t outline which Snapdragon chips will gain support for AirDrop – whether it’ll be the preserve of flagship chips like the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 or will make its way to mid-range and lower-end chips like the Snapdragon 7 series.
Nor do we know how far back this support will go, with a whole heap of active phones out there using older Qualcomm processors.
We also don’t know how closely Qualcomm is working with Google on this feature, if at all.
In last week’s announcement, Google stated that it would be debuting on Pixel 10, and this would be “expanding it to more Android devices” in the future.
It’s possible that AirDrop support will come forward on a manufacturer-by-manufacturer basis. Last week, British brand Nothing piped up with its own AirDrop announcement. CEO Carl Pei revealed that “We’re already exploring how to bring this to Nothing phones as soon as we can.”
