Google announced that Quick Share is now compatible with AirDrop, enabling two-way sharing of photos, videos, and files between Android and iOS devices, with the rollout beginning with the Pixel 10 family. The company says the design focused on protecting personal data during the transfer process, while also making communication easier between users who own phones from different platforms.
The feature is part of Android’s efforts to reduce barriers between platforms, but it does not yet offer full compatibility with all AirDrop modes. In its current form, Quick Share works with AirDrop’s Everyone for 10 minutes mode, while Google said it hopes to work with Apple to enable Contacts Only in the future.
Multilayered Protection
Google explains that AirDrop support went through security development stages following its approach known as Secure by Design. These stages include threat modeling to identify potential risks and address them early, internal security and privacy design reviews, as well as extensive internal penetration testing to discover and fix vulnerabilities.
The feature relies on layers of protection from the connection itself and from both operating systems. Google developed the communication channel using Rust, which it describes as a memory-safe language that provides protection against classes of vulnerabilities such as buffer overflows and memory corruption issues. The process also benefits from protections built into Android and iOS, including Google Play Protect on Android, as well as iOS’s security architecture, which helps limit malicious files and exploitation attempts.
Files are not received automatically; receiving a file requires the user’s approval, giving them control over what they accept. When sharing files between people who are not in each other’s contacts, Google recommends directly verifying the other party’s device name before completing the transfer.
Rust’s Role in the Communication Layer
Google says the choice of Rust was deliberate because of the feature’s nature: it receives and analyzes data over a wireless protocol from another device. It explained that data-parsing errors in languages that are not memory-safe can lead to memory overflows or corruption, potentially enabling code execution when maliciously crafted data packets are exploited.
According to the company, Rust enforces strict ownership and borrowing rules during compilation, helping prevent entire classes of memory-safety errors. Google links the language’s use in this feature to a broader initiative to address memory-safety errors in Android, noting that Rust has become a core element of this effort.
Direct Connection and Independent Evaluation
Sharing between Quick Share and AirDrop works through a direct device-to-device connection, and the data does not pass through a server. Google also says that shared content is not logged and that no additional data is sent. This means files are transferred directly between the two devices, while users remain responsible for verifying the identity of the receiving device when using the currently available sharing mode.
After conducting threat modeling, privacy reviews, internal penetration testing, and red-team testing, Google engaged NetSPI to perform an independent security assessment and third-party penetration test. The company said the assessment concluded that compatibility between Quick Share and AirDrop is secure and “significantly stronger” than other applications in the industry, without leaking information.
Google also sought external feedback from Dan Boneh, a security expert and professor at Stanford University, who said that using memory-safe Rust in the core communications layer represents a strong example of building secure cross-platform compatibility, and called on Google and Apple to continue cooperating in this area.
The feature represents a first step in Google’s plan to expand cross-platform sharing to include more devices. The company did not specify in the article when Contacts Only would be added or which devices would support the feature after the Pixel 10 family.