GoKawiilRyan Haines / Android Authority
TL;DR Some Pixel 8 series owners report that their phones have received the Quick Share Extension app.
This app is required for AirDrop interoperability on Android phones.
The feature isn’t active on Pixel 8 phones yet, so you might have to wait a while to share files with iPhones via AirDrop.
Google surprised the tech world last year when it announced that Quick Share on the Pixel 10 series would support Apple’s AirDrop feature. This meant Pixel 10 owners and iPhone users could natively share files with each other. This functionality has since arrived on the Pixel 9 series and several other Android phones, but it now looks like Google is gearing up to bring this to the Pixel 8 range.
Users on the pixel_phones subreddit (h/t: PiunikaWeb) report that they’re seeing the Quick Share Extension app on the Pixel 8a and Pixel 8 Pro. These users apparently received the app after the April or May system updates. This app is a prerequisite for Quick Share/AirDrop interoperability.
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Unfortunately, a couple of Pixel 8 series owners report that Quick Share/AirDrop support isn’t actually working right now. So Google still needs to flick the switch and enable the feature on these phones. Android Authority contributor AssembleDebug adds that devices also need to have a so-called “mosey_server” file in their firmware as a prerequisite for AirDrop support. But this isn’t present in the Pixel 8 Pro’s firmware. This file is related to the Quick Share Extension app.
Nevertheless, the fact that this extension app is now available on Pixel 8 phones means that Google is definitely gearing up to bring AirDrop support to these devices. Our fingers are crossed that this capability lands on Pixel 8 devices sooner rather than later.
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