Anyone who enjoys taking and sharing lots of photos will probably agree that AirDrop is a great feature, but its Apple-only status is limiting. Now, WhatsApp can compete with it on all devices. The company appears to be working on a new update that will allow users to share files with nearby devices, Beta Information Western Australia Report.
WhatsApp’s new feature is currently in development (it hasn’t even reached beta testing yet), so while we don’t know when it will be available, we do have a good idea of what it will look like. For starters, users may need to shake their device to initiate the request and, of course, maintain distance from the other party. The recipient then needs to open WhatsApp and shake their device to view and accept the sharing request. We don’t know how close the two need to be, but for context, AirDrop has a range of about 30 feet.
WhatsApp’s security measures extend to sharing, as archives (probably mostly photos and videos) will be end-to-end encrypted. The platform will also keep phone numbers private when users share files with anyone other than their contacts. While much of this is similar to AirDrop, it’s unclear whether files will be automatically downloaded to the user’s camera roll or using Bluetooth alone. Currently, WhatsApp allows sending 100 photos at a time via regular messages, so we’ll have to wait and see how different this feature is.
This article was originally published on Engadget: https://www.engadget.com/whatsapp-may-soon-offer-its-own-airdrop-like-file-sharing-feature-125542333.html?src=rss
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