How to use AirDrop to Share Files Across Apple Devices

Before learning how to use AirDrop, let’s take a look at how to set up AirDrop. You can do this through Control Center, or in your iPhone settings. We’ll use Control Center. Once you’re there, touch and hold the network settings card.

To check who can see your device and send you content, tap AirDrop and select Contacts Only, which means that you’ll need to have the contact of the sender saved in your contacts in order to receive content.

If you don’t have them as a contact, you can change your device settings to Everyone. Just remember, if you keep your AirDrop settings to Everyone, you may receive an invitation to accept content from someone you don’t know. So, it’s better to add the contact instead of enabling Everyone.

Now let’s share something with AirDrop. Let’s say you want to share a photo. Start by opening the image. Then tap the share button in the bottom left of the screen.

On the top row, you may see your other nearby devices signed in with your Apple ID or Siri suggestions of people you can share with. Now, tap AirDrop. Then, tap the device or contact you want to share the photo with.

If you receive something from someone else on AirDrop, you’ll receive an alert with a preview of the content being shared and options to accept or decline. If you tap Accept, the content will open in the app it was sent from. So a photo will appear in the Photos app, while a website URL opens in Safari. If a file can be opened in multiple apps, like a PDF, you can choose which app to open it in. And that’s how to share or receive files, photos, and more using AirDrop.