The app that connects the unconnectable: how to use LiveDrop to transfer files without a network

Thanks to solutions like QuickShare (the new Nearby Share) e AirDrop, Transferring files between phones is increasingly popular easy, but there are situations in which this could be the case immediate – or advisable (by the way, do you know how to transfer files from Android to iPhone?).

For example, let’s say you need to make a transfer between Different OSor that you don’t have one available net (for example in the case of a phone with a broken Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chip, and no cellular connectivity), or even that you need to transfer sensitive files and you are afraid that they will be intercepted.

This is where it comes into play LiveDrop, a solution presented at CES 2024 and which allows you to transfer documents and photos without needing one connection of any type: the transfer takes place exclusively through images.

As explained on the developer’s site, LiveDrop it is a cross-platform solution that works on pre-existing hardware (a 2014 onwards phone is sufficient), which allows data transfer offline, safe and one-way between devices with displays and cameras.

Operation occurs simply through images: the document is “decomposed” into a data matrix (a sort of QR code “moving”) which is shown on the screen, to then be read and “recomposed” by the receiving phone

We tried with two phones in flight mode and it works, incredibly quickly and easily. To try it too, all you have to do is install the free app LiveDrop, available for Android and iOS, and launch it on two phones.

Once past the introductory screens you will arrive at Home, then on the phone from which to send the vile, tap the “+” button at the bottom right and select the icon document, from the photo or of camera.

Now tap on the icon sending (a purple paper airplane) at the bottom right and the file will be broken down in the moving matrix. Take the other one telephone and tap the player icon at the bottom right (the purple button above the “+”).

Frame the phone from which you want to send the document and in an instant the “transfer” will be completed.

Be careful, because there are limits: the file size can only be 250KB, and if you try to send a larger PDF LiveDrop will give you an error. For them Images instead the system will carry out an automatic “compression”: regardless of the size of the photo sent, on the receiving device you will find an image in WEBP from 50KBwhich means it will be a low resolution.

So it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution, but LiveDrop is very insistent on it safety of the system, which cannot be intercepted at any stage of the transfer since the so-called does not happen handshake and there is no data packet flow. For this reason the company offers the system in applications medical And military, but even in an emergency it can always be useful.