Allow it, and now people should be able to share items with you. Now, you should see a prompt to allow AirDrop. You can also press and hold to choose from Receiving Off, Contacts Only, and Everyone. Now press and hold on the top-left group of controls to expand it. On an iPhone with a Home button, swipe up from the bottom edge of the screen. To do this on an iPhone with Face ID, swipe down from the top-right of the screen. This is simple.įirst, open Control Center. If you’re trying to receive an item from another person, or you don’t see their device when you try to share, you or they likely need to enable AirDrop. Choose the device you wish to share with, and you’ll see “Waiting…” appear underneath this icon while it transfers. Here you’ll see a list of nearby devices. If you’ve used AirDrop before, you may also see commonly used devices listed in the quick access section of the share sheet. On the share sheet, you’ll see the AirDrop icon. Tap the share icon (a square with an upward facing arrow). For our purposes here, we’ll share a photo.

To get started sharing, find the item you want to share. As long as you’re patient, this isn’t much of an issue, but it is worth mentioning. Occasionally, you need to try to share an item two or three times before it will actually share.

The other is that AirDrop can be finicky. This is no longer an issue, but if you’re using older devices or software, you may have issues with some AirDrop functionality. There are some quirky downsides that you may run into if you’re not expecting them.įor some time, you couldn’t share photos over AirDrop between iPhones and Macs, only with devices using the same operating system. The Downsides of AirDropĪirDrop is handy, but it isn’t perfect. This means that regardless of where you are or what your connectivity may be, you can share photos, documents, and more.ĪirDrop is also simple to use. Instead, it directly communicates with other devices running iOS, iPadOS, or macOS. You and the person you’re sharing with also need either a cellular connection or a Wi-Fi connection.ĪirDrop doesn’t use your cellular data or Wi-FI.

Messages will share all sorts of information, but this isn’t always the fastest way. You can share various photos and other information on your iPhone in various ways.

How to use airdrop