Your Pixel 8 phone is almost ready for AirDrop support

Source: 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 to share files with iPhones via AirDrop.

Background

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. The functionality later arrived on the Pixel 9 series and several other Android phones.

Recent Reports

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. The app is a prerequisite for Quick Share/AirDrop interoperability.

Current Status

A few Pixel 8 series owners say that Quick Share/AirDrop support isn’t actually working yet. Google still needs to enable the feature on these phones. Android Authority contributor AssembleDebug notes that devices also need a “mosey_server” file in their firmware as a prerequisite for AirDrop support, which is not present in the Pixel 8 Pro’s firmware.

Outlook

The presence of the extension app on Pixel 8 devices suggests that Google is gearing up to bring AirDrop support to this range. Hopefully the capability will land on Pixel 8 devices soon.