Show HN: Snapdrop: Instantly share files between devices. No setup, no signup (snapdrop.me)
72 points by Capira 12 hours ago
nullify88 3 hours ago
I've used a bunch of similar tooling like airdrop and localsend. I don't have alot faith in them a little since they usually choke on large files or many files. I'm still looking for something that works well in those cases without resorting to a cable / MTP which isn't fantastic either.
mhitza 2 hours ago
I can't report on percentage improvement, but after a long time localsend recently pushed out a version that claims to be much better (to be read as faster) for the transfer of large/many files.
For a long time the issue was blocked because of an upstream library, maybe LLMs finally unblocked the devs to push the fixes through.
smusamashah 10 hours ago
But SnapDrop was sold to LimeWire from what I remember, wasn't it? I have it on my (somewhat popular) list https://gist.github.com/SMUsamaShah/fd6e275e44009b72f64d0570...
Edit: so that was SnapDrop.net this is so confusing now. Are you the author of that GitHub repo?
jtokoph 6 hours ago
It seems to be the original developer relaunching. Here is an old show HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10791403
xp84 6 hours ago
Wait, LimeWire? That still exists? How??
ranger_danger 10 hours ago
There is a fork of it here: https://github.com/schlagmichdoch/PairDrop
smusamashah 7 hours ago
Looking at the history of the github repo of this show hn, the readme was previously linking to now Sold to LimeWire SnapDrop.net. Github author recently changed that to SnapDrop.me and is either doing a Show HN himself or this is another fishy play by LimeWire.
nitin7 8 hours ago
I have used localsend. How is snapdrop this different from https://github.com/localsend/localsend?
noncoml 5 hours ago
LocalSend doesn’t work for non /24 subnets
YCombinedBob an hour ago
Amazing how many people here do not seem to know this.
It is like Airdrop but for interdevice transfer!
PC to Mac to Iphone to Android to Linux to Windows etc. to almost anything that has a browser. Directly, no intermediate.
I prefer Pairdrop though (fork).
inexcf 10 hours ago
Why does this look exactly like https://pairdrop.net/ ?
lawilli 9 hours ago
Pairdrop is listed in the “Inofficial” instances section of Snapdrop’s GitHub FAQ
https://github.com/RobinLinus/snapdrop/blob/master/docs/faq....
SoKamil 8 hours ago
Pairdrop is a fork with new features.
See: https://github.com/schlagmichdoch/pairdrop#differences-to-th...
EagnaIonat 4 hours ago
Both look like Airdrop. Is this for people who don't have airdrop? I am not seeing the benefits.
jdranczewski an hour ago
Yes, as someone who doesn't use Apple devices Pairdrop is pretty useful.
bart3r 5 hours ago
I wanted to try it out, so i fired it up on my laptop and my phone. The laptop experience was pleasant, but on the mobile, the ads seemed to be covering the nearby devices, and it felt like full scam-ware.
So close, yet, so far.
Redster 10 hours ago
If you like Snapdrop, you'll love croc!
I used Snapdrop before they got bought and found it pretty reliable. It sometimes would not transfer and I went exploring.
I used magic-wormhole-based Warp and liked it, but now I use croc of getcroc.com for almost everything. Whether it's sending files to myself or others, it's just the most flexible and seems to be reliable and fast from my use.
(I haven't been using it super long, but I heartily recommend.)
monomania 4 hours ago
I like croc but you can get magic wormhole clients for platforms that your SO uses through the usual distribution channels without having to resort to "weird" installation methods like Obtanium or Fdroid.
canadiantim 10 hours ago
What about something like Iroh?
Redster 10 hours ago
I've never used Iroh; can you use it with no setup or without an account? I send/receive files often enough from non-technical people, having a no-install/accountless solution for sending files is essential. For my use-case, my go to is croc or Bitwarden Send (I'm on a paid acct), depending on the person.
Update: I see that there are many ways to do this accountless. For some reason the search result was iroh.computer and I made some assumptions. There are definitely some iroh-based options that look like they would have essentially the same UX that I'm going for. Would love to hear if there's some specific pros or cons to croc or iroh.
ftchd 5 hours ago
I'll usually go with pairdrop.net, never failed me!
hn_acc1 8 hours ago
So does this host the files? For free? How long before ads start / you have to register / subscription model, etc?
tredre3 6 hours ago
> None of your files are ever sent to any server. Files are sent only between peers. Snapdrop doesn't even use a database. If you are curious have a look at the Server. Even if Snapdrop was able to view the files being transfered, WebRTC encrypts the files on transit, so the server would be unable to read them.
https://github.com/RobinLinus/snapdrop/blob/master/docs/faq....
saadn92 10 hours ago
I've had this need recently and noticed that tailscale is extremely useful between phone to mac transfers as well. I mean you can also technically use airdrop too, but that sometimes is unreliable for me.
lolc 11 hours ago
This can be very useful.
Indeed my Android phone sees my Linux PC. And the PC can send a file to the phone. At first the file transfer to the PC didn't work and the icons just twitched. After 5 minutes it works now strangely enough.
rtvn83 4 hours ago
does my file stay local?
mathfailure 10 hours ago
File transfers do not work. Even after allowing microphone access on both ends.
_carbyau_ 5 hours ago
What is the microphone access for?
Do you need to say "My voice is my passport." or something?
ProAm 9 hours ago
What year is this?
kyxsc 8 hours ago
Use Tether!!
Ylpertnodi an hour ago
Provide link! Why use it compared to this?
djfobbz 7 hours ago
Terrible service. I used to use it back in the days until it starting going down all of the time. Switched to localsend and never looked back.
analog8374 8 hours ago
I like localsend mself
dhanizael 9 hours ago
good work!