Microsoft finally offers AirDrop-style file sharing between iPhones and PCs – here’s how it works
- A new Windows feature lets you share files between iPhones and PCs
- It’s a lot like Apple’s AirDrop feature, but works on all operating systems
- It is limited to users of the Windows Insider program for now
Apple’s Walled Garden makes it incredibly easy to quickly and easily share files between your Apple devices, but things get a little trickier when you want to link your iPhone and a Windows PC. That could change, though, as Microsoft just gave you a new way to share files across devices that mirrors one of Apple’s best features.
An update has been released for the Phone Link app for Windows and the Link to Windows app for iPhone. In one new blog postMicrosoft has revealed that when you use the latest version of any app, you can share files between your devices with just a few clicks. That’s similar to Apple’s AirDrop feature, which lets you send files back and forth between your Apple devices without having to do anything fiddly like attaching them to messages or emails.
To send a file from your iPhone to your Windows PC using Microsoft’s new method, find the file in question and select the share button in iOS, then tap Link to Windows and choose the device to send it to you want to send the file. To do the reverse (i.e. send something from a Windows PC to an iPhone), right-click the file in Windows, choose Share from the context menu, then select “My Phone.”
This is a much easier way to move files between your devices, even if they are tied to different ecosystems. Previously, it was common to use a third-party app such as Dropbox or Google Drive to share items, which often required you to manually upload and download files in a much more labor-intensive manner. That means Microsoft’s latest feature is welcome, especially if you use devices made by both Microsoft and Apple.
Share the wealth
We’ve seen something like this before. In August 2024, Microsoft introduced a similar file sharing feature between Windows and Android. It seems that Microsoft has been encouraged by that feature and has now extended it to work with Apple devices.
Microsoft has set a number of requirements for this new feature to work. In addition to running Phone Link (version 1.24112.89.0) and Link to Windows (version 1.24112.73 or later), you must have iOS 16 or later installed on your iPhone and running Windows 10 or Windows 11 on your PC, and be signed in for the Windows Insider program.
With any luck, this feature will roll out to users who are not part of the Windows Insider program in the coming weeks. Once that happens, it should make life a lot easier for anyone who uses both an iPhone and a Windows PC and wants to share files between them.