Xiaomi, OPPO, And Vivo Form Alliance For Easy Wireless File Transfer

It is both ironic and comical that, despite all the advancements in mobile technology, sharing a simple photo between two phones can still be a hassle. Unless you're talking about AirDrop, but that only works between Apple devices. Despite using a single base platform, sharing between Android smartphones from different manufacturers is no easy task. That is why three of China's biggest smartphone makers have agreed to make it easy to share files with just three taps, at least when sharing between Xiaomi, OPPO, and vivo phones.

This Peer-to-Peer Transmission Alliance that the three companies formed is really something that all Android phone makers should be part of. Or rather, it should be a basic feature independent of phone manufacturers.

On a technical level, it really doesn't offer anything new. The file transfer system uses a combination of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi Direct (also known as WiFi P2P) to connect devices and transfer files without making use of any Internet or cellular data connection. It is pretty much the same system used by other apps, including Google's own Files app.

What the Alliance offers that those apps don't is ease of use. Users simply need to turn the feature on for any of the three OEMs' supported phoned and they can share immediately to the device within range. No more explicit pairing or setup process involved.

Of course, this feature only works when sharing between these three brands, despite their press release positioning it for the global market. On Xiaomi's part, almost all of its phones running Android 9 or higher are supported but, strangely enough, excludes quite a number of phones from the Redmi 6, Redmi 7, and Redmi 8 lines.