Android and iPhone
How to send files and photos between an Android phone and an iPhone
Two phones, side by side, and no way to hand a photo from one to the other. AirDrop refuses to see the Android. Quick Share refuses to see the iPhone. Each platform's answer to this problem works only with itself.
The way out is the one thing both phones already run and both keep current: the browser. This guide covers sending in either direction, keeping photos at full quality, and the handful of things that behave differently on each platform.
Both directions · Full quality · No app on either phone · No account
Why the obvious tools do not work
Both platforms solved this only for themselves
AirDrop and Quick Share are genuinely good. They are also deliberately closed, and no setting on either phone opens them up.
- AirDropApple devices only
- Quick ShareAndroid, and Windows
- Bluetooth file transferBlocked between the two platforms
- A messaging appWorks, but recompresses photos and video
- EmailAttachment limits stop at around 25 MB
- A shared cloud folderUploads first, and leaves a copy
The messaging route is the one worth naming specifically, because it looks like it worked. The photo arrives, it opens, it looks fine on a phone screen — and it is a smaller, re-encoded copy of what you sent. If you are moving photos you intend to keep, that matters.
The method
Phone to phone, in five steps
It does not matter which phone starts. One shows a code, the other reads it with its camera. Below, the sending phone shows the code and the receiving phone scans — but either way round works.
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01
Open poftim.app on the first phone
Safari on the iPhone, Chrome on the Android — the browser each phone already uses. A square code appears on the page straight away.
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02
Scan it with the second phone's camera
On an iPhone, the ordinary Camera app recognises the code and offers a banner to open the page. On most Android phones the built-in camera does the same; if yours does not, open the browser and use the code scanner in the app drawer or the quick settings panel.
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03
Confirm the phrase on both screens
Both phones show the same short phrase. Compare them and confirm. In a room with several people connecting at once, this is the check that tells you which phone you actually reached.
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04
Pick the photos or files and send
Tap Choose files. Each phone offers its own picker — the photo library, or the file browser. Select up to five hundred items and confirm. Every file is sent exactly as it is stored, with no recompression.
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05
Save them on the receiving phone
Files appear as they arrive. Once more than three have arrived, Save all hands the whole set to the phone's system share sheet, where one tap files them away — into the photo library for images, or into a folder for anything else.
Platform differences
Where the two phones behave differently
The transfer is identical in both directions. Saving what arrives is where each platform imposes its own habits.
On iOS, a web page cannot write into a folder directly, so the system share sheet is the route for saving several files at once. On Android, the browser is more willing, and saving is closer to how a computer behaves.
Both platforms suspend a page that is not on screen, which is the single most common reason a phone-to-phone transfer stops early. Keep both screens awake and both pages visible.
- Saving one file, either phoneA Save button beside it
- Saving many files, iPhoneSystem share sheet, one tap
- Saving many files, AndroidSystem share sheet, one tap
- Photo qualityUnchanged in both directions
- Backgrounding the page mid-transferStops it, on both platforms
Photos specifically
Moving a photo library from one phone to the other
Photos are what most people are actually trying to move, and they bring one complication with them: the file format each phone prefers.
An iPhone stores photos as HEIC by default. Android phones read HEIC in the gallery, generally without complaint, but an older phone or a particular editing app may not. If you are sending a set of photos from an iPhone to an Android device and want no surprises, switch the iPhone camera to store new photos in its most compatible format, which is JPEG. That only affects photos taken afterwards — it does not convert what you already have.
Going the other way, Android photos are usually JPEG and an iPhone opens them without any trouble at all.
Whichever direction you send, the original file is what travels. Nothing is converted, resized or stripped in transit, and the file is verified against a hash of the original before it is reported as received.
Questions
What people ask about phone to phone
Do both phones need to be on the same Wi-Fi?
No. Sharing a network makes it faster, because the files can take a direct path between the two phones. When they are on different networks the encrypted stream is passed along by a relay instead, which is slower but works between any two places.
Can I send to somebody else's phone, not my own?
Yes, and it works the same way. If they are next to you, they scan your code. If they are not, press Share connection and send them the one-time link. Compare the phrase on both screens before you send anything — that is what proves the person who opened the link is the person you meant.
Is there a limit on how many photos at once?
Up to five hundred files in one session, with no published size limit on any of them. In practice the constraints are the free space on the receiving phone and keeping both pages on screen for the length of the transfer.
Does either phone need an account?
No. Sending and receiving need nothing but the page and a current browser. There is an optional paid feature that lets your own devices remember each other, but it plays no part in an ordinary transfer.
The Android camera will not read the code
Not every Android camera scans codes by default. Most phones have a code scanner in the quick settings panel or the app drawer, and the browser's address bar often has one too. Failing that, use Share connection on the other phone and send the link by message instead.
Can I send videos this way?
Yes, at full quality and with no size tier. A long video from a phone is exactly the case that messaging apps handle worst. Sending large files covers what to expect on time and what genuinely limits it.