Xiaomi, Vivo, Oppo team up to introduce an AirDrop-like cross-device file-sharing service

Xiaomi has announced an inter-transfer alliance group with its Chinese counterparts Oppo and Vivo. Under the alliance group, the three device makers would offer a cross-device file-sharing service which is similar to Apple’s AirDrop.

Xiaomi announced the news of the partnership with Vivo and Oppo in its post on WeChat. As per the announcement, the protocol would require Bluetooth connection for cross-device file-sharing, instead of using a third-party app. Users can transfer files between the smartphones at a transfer rate up to 20Mbps.

Initially, the file transfer service would be available between Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo. However, the company has announced that the alliance is open for other manufacturers willing to partner for the peer-to-peer file sharing service. It is likely that Redmi and Realme too would be a part of this alliance, since they are Xiaomi and Oppo sub-brands, respectively.

A beta version of the service is expected to roll out soon by the end of August.

Google was recently reported to be working on a similar feature. Called Fast Share, the feature would allow Android users to share a file to other devices and Chromebooks. The search engine giant had introduced a feature called Android Beam that was used to transfer files using NFC, back in 2011. 

Android Beam would now be replaced by Fast Share in Android Q, which would use Bluetooth and Location Services without the need of an active internet or Wi-Fi connection.  

Currently, only Huawei has been successful in creating an Apple-like AirDrop file-sharing system. Huawei Share is a service that lets Huawei and Honor smartphones to share files with each other. The service is not limited only to smartphones as laptops and tablets, too, can share files via Huawei Share.