Samsung has confirmed that it will begin rolling out an update to its Galaxy S26 series flagship phones this week, making the existing "Quick Share" feature compatible with Apple's AirDrop protocol. Like Google's Pixel 9 and Pixel 10 series, this update will break down the previous file exchange barriers between iOS and Android, allowing Galaxy users to directly and seamlessly exchange high-quality images and files with iPhone, iPad, or Mac users.
South Korea was the first to launch it, with Europe, the United States, and Taiwan to follow suit.
According to official information released by Samsung, the update, named "Share with Apple devices," will first be rolled out to users of Galaxy S26, S26+, and S26 Ultra models in the South Korean market on March 23. Regions including the United States, Europe, Hong Kong, Japan, Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Taiwan are expected to receive the update support "later this week."
Users of older Galaxy devices (such as the Galaxy S25 series) need not despair. Samsung promised in a statement that this feature will be extended to "more additional Galaxy devices" in the future, but has not yet announced a specific rollout timeline and support list.
Not enabled by default: Both parties need to adjust their sharing permissions.
It's worth noting that, unlike the implementation on previous Pixel devices, Samsung has not set this AirDrop cross-platform feature to "default on".
After receiving the system update, Galaxy S26 users must manually go to "Settings > Connected Devices > Quick Share" and enable the newly added "Share with Apple Devices" option. Samsung also specifically reminds users that to ensure smooth transmission, Galaxy users must ask the receiving iPhone user to temporarily set AirDrop receiving permissions to "Everyone"; conversely, if an Apple device sends a file to a Samsung phone, the Galaxy device must also ensure that Quick Share is enabled for receiving.
Is the Android camp completely shifting towards "cross-platform" transmission?
The key driver behind this feature is Google's strategic plan to establish underlying interoperability between the Android and iOS ecosystems.
Since announcing last year that its Quick Share was compatible with Apple's AirDrop protocol, Google first applied it to its own Pixel 10 and Pixel 9 series, and Samsung recently announced that it will also add this feature. In addition, Chinese brands including Xiaomi, OPPO, and vivo have also confirmed that they will add support, making future photo sharing more convenient and eliminating the need to confirm the brand of each phone beforehand; in principle, they can all use the AirDrop protocol for interoperability.
Although this technology is not exclusive to Samsung, the collaboration with Samsung can attract more users due to Samsung's significant share of the global mobile phone market. It is expected that the widespread adoption of this feature through more Chinese brands will greatly eliminate the previous problem of Android phones having difficulty directly transferring files and sharing photos with Apple products.
