SHAREit from iOS to Android: How It Works, and What to Know Before You Install It

Moving a photo from an iPhone to an Android phone is the one transfer neither company built for you, so a third-party app fills the gap. SHAREit is the name most people land on. It does work, and it comes with a reputation you should hear about before you install it. This page covers both halves, plus the ways to do the same job with no app at all.

SHAREit moves files from iOS to Android over a link it makes itself

The transfer itself is a short sequence, and the only step that catches people out is the one where the two phones join each other. Work through it in this order:

1. Install SHAREit on both phones, from the App Store on the iPhone and the Play Store on the Android phone.
2. Open the app on each phone and grant the permissions it asks for. The iPhone side needs access to your photo library, and the Android side needs permission to find and connect to nearby devices.
3. On the iPhone, tap Send and pick the photos, videos or files you want to move.
4. On the Android phone, tap Receive. It starts listening for a sender.
5. Let the sending phone create its own Wi-Fi network. It will show you a network name and a password.
6. If the two phones do not find each other on their own, open the Wi-Fi settings on the receiving phone, join the network the sending phone just created, and return to the app.
7. Tap the other phone when it appears on the radar screen, and accept the transfer on the receiving side.
8. Check the files in the Android phone's gallery or file manager before you delete anything from the iPhone.

What makes that work without any internet connection is worth understanding, because it is the one thing SHAREit does that a cloud service cannot:

• SHAREit moves a file between an iPhone and an Android phone over a Wi-Fi link that one of the two phones creates. The sending phone acts as the network and the other joins it, so nothing travels through your router or your mobile plan.
• A SHAREit transfer from an iPhone to an Android phone works with no internet connection at all. The link is between the two handsets, so an aeroplane, a hotel network that will not let devices see each other, or a data plan with nothing left on it changes nothing.
• The two phones do not have to be on the same Wi-Fi network for SHAREit to move a file between them. That is the real difference from browser tools like Snapdrop and PairDrop, which need both devices already sitting on one network before they can see each other.
• Joining the sending phone's temporary network is the step where an iPhone to Android transfer usually stalls. If the receiving phone sits on the radar screen and never connects, go to its Wi-Fi settings and join that network by hand, using the name and password the sending phone is displaying.
• An iPhone to Android transfer over SHAREit pauses or breaks if you leave the app partway through. iOS suspends apps that go to the background, so keep SHAREit on screen and the phone unlocked until the last file has landed.
• Sending a large batch from an iPhone over a direct Wi-Fi link is faster than uploading it to a cloud service and downloading it again. A local link runs at local speeds, and it does not make you pay for the same data twice, once on the way up and once on the way down.

Camera to Clipboard sends the photo to a computer, not another phone

A good share of the people who look up SHAREit are not moving a photo to another phone at all. They want it in a document, an email or a chat window on a laptop, and a phone to phone app is the wrong shape for that job.

• A photo sent from a phone with Camera to Clipboard lands on the computer's clipboard rather than in a folder. Press Ctrl + V on Windows or Cmd + V on a Mac and it is in the document, with no file to go and find afterwards.
• Camera to Clipboard sends from an iPhone or an Android phone, and receives on Windows or a Mac. It is the cross-platform pairing that AirDrop and Quick Share each only half cover, aimed at a computer instead of a second phone.
• Camera to Clipboard sends the photo straight across your local Wi-Fi, with nothing uploaded to a cloud service. Nobody's server holds a copy, and the transfer still runs on a network with no internet or on the phone's own hotspot.
• Camera to Clipboard shows no advertising and does not put a content feed in front of the transfer. The app opens on your camera and your library, which is the whole of what it does.
• Camera to Clipboard delivers the photo to the computer at full resolution, not the shrunken copy a chat app sends. Nothing is recompressed on the way across, so what you paste is what the camera took.

1. Install Camera to Clipboard on the phone and the desktop app on the computer.
2. Pair them once by scanning a QR code, about ten seconds.
3. Take or pick a photo on the phone and send it.
4. Press Ctrl + V, or Cmd + V on a Mac.

Free to download and try on both ends. If you are weighing up transfer apps generally, our roundup of phone to PC transfer apps compares the field.

iOS lets SHAREit reach your photos and files but never your apps

An iPhone to Android transfer is noticeably narrower than an Android to Android one, and that is Apple's design rather than a missing feature in the app. Five limits are worth knowing before you start:

• An app on an iPhone can only reach your photo library and the files you hand it, which is the ceiling on what SHAREit can send from an iPhone. Apple runs every app in its own sandbox, so there is no general folder of everything on the phone for a transfer app to open.
• SHAREit can copy an installed app from one Android phone to another, and it can never do that from an iPhone. Android lets an app export another app's installer file, iOS has no equivalent, and an iPhone app could not run on Android anyway. Every screenshot you have seen of an app being shared is Android to Android.
• Photos leave an iPhone in the format the camera saved them in, which is usually HEIC rather than JPEG. Current Android versions display HEIC, but an older phone or an app that only understands JPEG may refuse what arrives. Setting Settings > Camera > Formats to Most Compatible makes every new photo a JPEG.
• Contacts, messages and call history do not move from an iPhone to an Android phone through any file transfer app. They live inside Apple's own apps, out of reach of anything you install. The switching tool from your Android phone's maker, run during setup, is what covers that ground.
• Setting up a SHAREit connection takes more taps on an iPhone than it does between two Android phones. iOS makes you approve or perform the network join yourself, while Android can hand more of that work to the app, which is why the two experiences look so different in guides and videos.

SHAREit pays for itself with ads that take over most of the app

SHAREit costs nothing to install, and the way it earns its money is the single most common complaint about it. Being clear about that up front saves a surprise:

• SHAREit is free to download and makes its money from advertising rather than from a purchase. That funding model explains almost everything about how the app looks and behaves once it is open.
• SHAREit has drawn sustained criticism for advertising that sits around the file transfer itself. This is not one banner in a corner. People who install it for a single transfer regularly describe dismissing full-screen ads on the way through.
• SHAREit also carries a feed of recommended videos and games that has nothing to do with moving a file. The company describes the product as a content and entertainment platform as well as a transfer tool, so the feed is the point rather than an accident.
• LocalSend does the same phone to phone job as SHAREit, for free, with no advertising in it at all. It is open source, it runs on iOS, Android, Windows, macOS and Linux, and it shows you nothing but the transfer. Its trade is that both devices must already be on the same network, which is exactly the case SHAREit's own hotspot is built for.
• SHAREit's ads are the price of a free transfer rather than a sign that anything is wrong with the files. What goes across arrives intact. The only real question is whether you want that app sitting on your phone afterwards, which the next section is about.

Install SHAREit for the transfer, then remove it when you are done

SHAREit has been the subject of published security research, and treating it as a tool you use and then remove is the sensible response to that. Here is what is on the record and what it does and does not mean:

• Security researchers at Trend Micro published vulnerability findings about the SHAREit Android app in 2021, reported at the time by SecurityWeek and others. That is public record rather than rumour, and published research of this kind is normal for an app installed a billion times over.
• The published findings describe the SHAREit app of that time and are not a verdict on the build in the store today. Whether the current version carries the same problems is not something we can check on your behalf. What can fairly be said is that SHAREit has a poor reputation for advertising and has been studied by security researchers, and both are reasons to keep your use of it short.
• Taking SHAREit from the official App Store or Play Store listing matters more here than it does for most apps. Any fix that exists lives in a later build, and an installer grabbed from a third-party download site skips those fixes and carries its own risk on top.
• Removing SHAREit once your files have arrived costs you nothing, because the app is not holding anything you still need. The photos are in the Android phone's gallery by then. Reinstalling it for the next transfer takes a minute.
• SHAREit is not available in every country, so check your own store before you plan a transfer around it. India blocked it in 2020 as part of a wider action against Chinese-developed apps, which was a government decision rather than a technical verdict on the software.
• Checking SHAREit's permissions on both phones limits what it can reach while it is installed. Photo access on the iPhone, and nearby device and storage permissions on Android, are what the transfer actually needs. Anything wider than that is worth switching off.

Quick Share reaches AirDrop from recent Pixel and Galaxy phones

It is worth knowing why a third-party app is involved at all, because the situation has started to change and most guides have not caught up:

• AirDrop is an Apple feature and an ordinary Android phone has no way to receive one. It is built into iPhone, iPad and Mac, and Apple has never shipped it anywhere else.
• Quick Share is Android's own nearby sharing and it has never had an iPhone app. It covers Android to Android, Android to Windows and Android to a Chromebook, and on recent flagships it now reaches AirDrop as well. Our AirDrop for Android guide goes through what it does cover.
• Google added AirDrop compatibility to Quick Share, and Apple took no part in building it. Google started with the Pixel 10 family in November 2025, then added the Pixel 9 series, the Galaxy S24 and later, and one line each from OnePlus, Xiaomi, OPPO, vivo and HONOR through the first half of 2026.
• Quick Share needs the iPhone set to Everyone for 10 Minutes, and a supported Android phone. Contacts Only never works, and most Android phones are still not on the list, which is where SHAREit and the link methods come in. Our Quick Share to AirDrop guide lists every supported model.
• Bluetooth is not the fallback for sending a photo from an iPhone to an Android phone. iOS offers no general Bluetooth file transfer to a non-Apple device, so the option people go looking for in the settings is simply not there.

SHAREit and LocalSend both move photos faster than any cloud method

Six options can carry a photo off an iPhone today. Five of them send it to an Android phone and the last sends it to a computer instead. They separate cleanly on speed, on what they ask you to sign in to, and on how much advertising you have to put up with.

Read across the SHAREit row and the trade is plain: of the five phone to phone options it is the only one that is both fast and usable with no internet, and the only one that charges you in advertising. Camera to Clipboard sits in the table for the case where the photo was never headed for a phone at all.

Use a cloud link for a few photos and SHAREit for a big batch

All of these work, so the choice comes down to how much you are moving, whether the two phones can get online, and how much advertising you are willing to sit through. Find your situation here:

• A shared iCloud link is the best way to send a few iPhone photos to an Android phone when both are online. It installs nothing, it keeps the photos at full-size, and the Android phone only has to open a web page.
• SHAREit is the best answer when you are moving a large batch from an iPhone with no usable internet on either phone. Nothing else on this page builds its own network, and that is worth putting up with the ads for once. Remove it afterwards.
• LocalSend is the best answer when both phones are on one Wi-Fi network and you want no ads at all. It is open source and cross-platform, and it does the same direct transfer without the entertainment feed. Our guide to Snapdrop alternatives covers it and the browser based tools.
• Google Photos on the iPhone is the best answer when you are switching to Android for good rather than moving a few files. Sign in once with the Google account the new phone uses, let the library upload, and everything is waiting when you arrive.
• Camera to Clipboard is the best answer when the photo is going to a laptop rather than to another phone. It lands on the computer's clipboard ready to paste, which none of the phone to phone options above do.

Common questions about moving files from an iPhone to Android

Does SHAREit work between an iPhone and an Android phone?
Yes. SHAREit publishes an app for both, and the transfer runs over a Wi-Fi link that the sending phone creates and the receiving phone joins, so it needs no mobile data and no shared Wi-Fi network. What you can send off an iPhone is narrower than what you can send off an Android phone, because iOS only lets an app reach your photo library and the files you pick for it.

Is SHAREit safe to use for an iPhone to Android transfer?
SHAREit has a poor reputation for advertising, and security researchers at Trend Micro published vulnerability findings about its Android app in 2021. That is a matter of public record rather than rumour, and it is not a verdict on the version in the store today. If you install it, take the current build from the official store listing, do the transfer you needed, and remove it afterwards.

How do I send photos from an iPhone to an Android phone without installing an app?
Use a shared link. Select the photos in the iPhone's Photos app, tap Share, and choose the option to copy an iCloud link, then send that link to the Android phone in a message or an email. The Android phone opens the link in any browser and downloads the full-size originals, with nothing installed on either side.

Why can I not AirDrop from an iPhone to an Android phone?
AirDrop is an Apple feature and an ordinary Android phone has no way to receive one, while Android's own Quick Share has never had an iPhone app. That gap is the whole reason third-party transfer apps exist. Google has since added AirDrop compatibility to Quick Share on its Pixel phones, without Apple taking part, and says it will bring it to more Android phones during 2026.