Okay, fellas listen up! Time for you to take notes!
You must’ve seen the Airdrop icon on your iPhone or iPad. And you’ve probably heard a friend offering to Airdrop something to either you or someone else. But do you actually know what this mysterious sharing feature is? Or are you still stuck in the olden days of texting, emailing, or even Facebook messaging your photos to your friends, thinking surely there must be a better, easier way to share pictures? If you’re such a Luddite, we’re here to help.
Drum Rolls Please!
Enter AirDrop! Baked into iOS, AirDrop is zero-configuration file transfer software that makes it extremely simple to share not just photos, but videos, contacts, Passbook passes, Voice Memos, Map locations, and everything else that appears on the Share sheet with other nearby iDevice users.
But what’s surprising is how only a few people seem to know about this magical tool let alone know how to use it. Yup, we are talking about you “Mr. What’s that air thingy.”
So, here’s everything you need to know about sharing pictures, documents, and more via Airdrop. Unless you, like me are living a couch potato lifestyle and have no friends, and thus no one to share anything with. Not even cozy moments. Sniff!
The first step – Turn On The AirDrop (iPads and iPhones)
– Swipe up from the end of your iPhone 8’s (or older) screen to launch the Control Center. For iPhones and iPads with Face ID, swipe down from the top right corner of the screen.
– Next, for iPads and older iPhone models press and hold the wireless control box (the one in the upper left corner of the screen that looks like a mini antenna), and for newer iPhones, all you gotta do is press it like you mean it.
– Tap on the Airdrop on the menu that appears.
– You can then pick options like whether you’d like to be Airdropped by everyone (Welcome random prank AirDrops), or only by your contacts (Highly recommended).
Just a heads up: If you choose ‘Contacts Only,’ make sure you are logged into iCloud
Now, let’s put this magical app to use
As mentioned above, you can share anything and everything that’s there on the ‘Share Sheet’ with any of the Apple devices. Here’s how
– FLaunch the app you want to share from
– Select the item you want to share
– Tap ‘Share’
– Then a list of available users in your area will appear under the photo. Tap the AirDrop user you want to share your item with and voila!
May you never see the day when you have to troubleshoot your way into your AirDrop, but in case you do, here’s how it’s done!
In times of need aka when the contacts fail to make an appearance in the AirDrop interface, try these hacks
– Either switch off and on your phone’s Bluetooth and Wifi off or toggle Airplane Mode on and off. This will reset the connections.
– You can also try turning off Instant Hotspot to free up the Bluetooth and Wifi connections.
– Temporarily switch your share settings to ‘Everyone’ to remove any chances of contact mismatch.
And that’s it! So good luck with your new quick-sharing tool and if you’ve got any questions, don’t be shy, leave a comment below and we’ll get back to you with the answer.