**NearDrop** is a partial implementation of [Google's Nearby Share](https://blog.google/products/android/nearby-share/) for macOS.

[Protocol documentation](/PROTOCOL.md) is available separately.

The app lives in your menu bar and saves files to your downloads folder. It's that simple, really.

## Limitations

* **Receive only**. For now. I haven't yet figured out how to make Android turn on the MDNS service and/or show the "a device nearby is sharing" notification.
* **Wi-Fi LAN only**. Your Android device and your Mac need to be on the same network for this app to work. Google's implementation supports multiple mediums, including Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth, some kind of 5G peer-to-peer connection, and even a WebRTC-based protocol that goes over the internet through Google servers. Wi-Fi direct isn't supported on macOS (Apple has their own, incompatible, AWDL thing, used in AirDrop). Bluetooth needs further reverse engineering.

## Installation

Download the latest build from the releases section, unzip, move to your applications folder. Do the usual Gatekeeper thing to run an Apple-untrusted app for the first time. If you want the app to start on boot, add it manually to login objects in System Preferences.

## FAQ

#### Why is the app not notarized?

Because I don't want to pay Apple $99 a year for the privilege of developing macOS apps and oppose their idea of security.

#### Why is this not on the app store?

Because I don't want to pay Apple $99 a year for the privilege of developing macOS apps. I also don't want to have to go through the review process.

#### Why not the other way around, i.e. AirDrop on Android?

While I am an Android developer, and I have looked into this, this is nigh-impossible. AirDrop uses [AWDL](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/19587701/what-is-awdl-apple-wireless-direct-link-and-how-does-it-work), Apple's own proprietary take on peer-to-peer Wi-Fi. This works on top of 802.11 itself, the low-level Wi-Fi protocol, and thus can not be implemented without messing around with the Wi-Fi adapter drivers and raw packets and all that. It might be possible on Android, but it would at the very least require root and possibly a custom kernel. There is [an open-source implementation of AWDL and AirDrop for Linux](https://owlink.org/code/).