Owners of the Pixel 7 and Pixel 8 have started seeing notifications telling them their phone can now share files with an iPhone. If the reports hold, it would be the first time Quick Share’s AirDrop compatibility has reached a Pixel older than the Pixel 8a. Treat this as user reports for now. Google has not commented, and its published eligibility list for the feature does not include those phones.
What the Pixel 7 and Pixel 8 reports actually show
Android Authority spotted the reports on 4 September. Two users posted screenshots of the notification landing on their handsets: @megumario on Telegram and @Cookieofautumn1 on X. The site also published a separate report earlier the same day about a Pixel Tablet picking up the same support, which we have not been able to verify independently.
There is a real caveat attached. Android Authority notes that some users seeing the notification say the feature still is not working for them, which suggests the alert may be arriving ahead of the actual capability. The site says it has asked Google for the full picture and had no answer at the time of writing.
So the honest read is this. Something is being flipped on at Google’s end, and older Pixels are being told about it. Whether it works on your phone today is a separate question.
Which phones Google officially supports
Google’s own Quick Share support page gives the requirement for sending files to an iPhone, iPad or Mac as a “Pixel 8a or later,” alongside certain Samsung, Oppo, OnePlus, Vivo, Xiaomi, Honor, Transsion and Motorola devices. That list does not name the Pixel 7, the Pixel 8 or the Pixel Tablet.
The feature started on the Pixel 10 family last year and worked its way down to the Pixel 8a series, then picked up the Pixel 11 line. An expansion to phones from 2022 and 2023 would be a genuinely useful piece of housekeeping, given how many people still carry them.
How to check on your own phone
You can test this in under a minute. On the iPhone side, open AirDrop settings and select Everyone for 10 minutes. On the Pixel, open the file you want to send, tap Share, then Quick Share, and look for the iPhone in the list of nearby devices. The recipient accepts through an AirDrop notification.
If the iPhone never appears, your Pixel does not have the feature yet, whatever the notification said. This may be a staged rollout, and it may also depend on which software update your phone has received.
There is a fallback that works regardless. On the Quick Share page, tap Use QR code, then scan it with the iPhone. That route sends files through Google’s servers rather than device to device. Google says those files are end-to-end encrypted and stay available for 24 hours, with a 10GB daily limit to Apple devices. It also needs both devices online, and it will use mobile data if you are not on Wi-Fi.
That server hop is the trade. Direct Quick Share to AirDrop keeps the transfer between the two phones. The QR method does not, so it is the one to avoid if the file is sensitive.
Source: @megumario and @Cookieofautumn1, via Android Authority
