Phone to phone on Android: send files between two phones with Linksy

Linksy works phone to phone too: two Android phones pair once, then send each other files, the clipboard, links and pings. Big files go straight from one phone to the other over Wi‑Fi Direct, every transfer picks up where it stopped if it's cut, and every byte is checked before the file is saved. For files, I think it's a good competitor to AirDrop on Android. Quick Share, which comes with Android, does the same job and is ahead in places; here is how they compare, and what I haven't measured yet.

How do I pair two phones?

1. Install Linksy for Android on both phones, from the download section: download the app, open it, and allow installing from your browser when Android asks.
2. Put both phones on the same Wi‑Fi.
3. On one phone, tap Add a device. While it's open, that phone is visible to devices it isn't paired with yet.
4. On the other phone, it shows up under Nearby, not paired. Tap Pair.
5. Both screens show the same six-digit code. If they match, confirm on both.

That's once. From then on, the two find each other by themselves whenever they're on the same Wi‑Fi. Scan QR code is for pairing with a computer, which shows the code; a phone scans it but doesn't show one.

What works phone to phone?

The everyday part of Linksy, the top of a device's page, works between phones as it does with a computer. The rest is for computers:

To get files without a question each time, turn on Accept from my devices in Settings on the receiving phone. To get them while Linksy is closed, turn on Keep running in the background. Received files go to Downloads › Linksy.

How do big files go from phone to phone?

When you send 256 MB or more, Linksy sets up a Wi‑Fi Direct link by itself, as it does between a phone and a computer. With a computer the phone always hosts the link. Two phones can't do it that way: Android hides each phone's own Wi‑Fi Direct address from apps, so neither could tell the other where to find it. So between phones it goes like this:

1. The two agree over the connection they already have, on your Wi‑Fi. One of them hosts: always the same one for a given pair, worked out from their IDs, so they never both try.
2. The host makes a Wi‑Fi Direct network with a name and a 20-character password that Linksy makes up for this link, on 5 GHz where the phone can.
3. It sends the name and the password to the other phone, inside Linksy's encrypted connection. The other phone joins; Android 10 and newer do that without asking you.
4. Linksy opens a second encrypted connection over the new link and sends the files on it. The first connection stays up for everything else.
5. Twenty seconds after the last transfer, the link closes by itself.

If the link isn't up within 45 seconds, the files go through the router as usual, and Linksy doesn't try the direct way with that phone again for ten minutes. Smaller files skip all this.

How fast is it between two phones?

I haven't measured two phones side by side yet, so there's no phone-to-phone number here. These are the numbers I have measured, all with Linksy:

Phone to phone over Wi‑Fi Direct is the same kind of path as the first row: one trip through the air, at close range. Through the router, it's the same two trips as the second. How the first two were measured is in the Wi‑Fi Direct article, and the third in the one on RAM and CPU.

What sets the speed between two phones?

• The slower phone's Wi‑Fi. Its Wi‑Fi generation, its antennas and the band: a phone that can't do 5 GHz makes the link on 2.4 GHz, which is much slower.
• Distance and walls, as with every Wi‑Fi link. Side by side is best.
• The Android version. The direct link needs Android 10 or newer on both. Older phones still send, through the router.
• The processor. Every byte is encrypted (TLS 1.3) and checked (BLAKE3). On my laptop that's about 4 seconds of processor time per GB on each side; on an old phone it may be what holds the transfer back. I haven't measured phones yet.
• Battery saver, which can slow the Wi‑Fi down to save power.

How does it compare with Quick Share?

Quick Share is Google's way to send files between nearby Android phones. It was called Nearby Share until Google and Samsung merged their two tools under the name of Samsung's, Quick Share, in January 2024. It's on Android 6 and newer, Chromebooks and some Windows PCs, according to Google's help page.

The visibility choices (Your devices, Contacts, Everyone for 10 minutes) and the QR code path for Apple devices are from Google's help page, which says files sent that way are end-to-end encrypted, uploaded to Google's servers and kept for 24 hours. How Quick Share picks its link is from Google's 2020 announcement: Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Energy, WebRTC or peer-to-peer Wi‑Fi, "even when you're fully offline". AirDrop support started with the Pixel 10 in November 2025, with the iPhone set to Everyone for 10 Minutes.

Where is Quick Share ahead?

• It's already there. Nothing to install on either phone, which matters most when the other phone isn't yours.
• No network needed. It finds phones over Bluetooth, so it works on a train or in a field. Linksy needs both phones on the same Wi‑Fi to find each other.
• No pairing for a one-off. Everyone for 10 minutes lets a stranger send you a photo once. With Linksy you pair first.
• More kinds of devices. Windows PCs, Chromebooks, and iPhones through AirDrop on newer Pixels.

Where is Linksy ahead?

• Linux. The same app pairs your phones with your Linux computers, and does much more there: screens, a webcam, a microphone, a deck. Google makes no Quick Share for Linux; RQuickShare is an unofficial, open-source one.
• No account. Once paired, your partner's phone or your old one is one of your devices, with no shared Google Account, no contact entry and no 10-minute window.
• Transfers that survive. A transfer cut halfway picks up where it stopped when you send it again, and the file is saved only once every byte matches the sender's checksum.
• No cloud. Files go straight between the two phones, encrypted end to end with keys the two exchanged when you paired them.
• Open. The core both phones run, the part that talks to the other phone, is open source under the GNU AGPL, and the Android app's code is public on GitHub.

And AirDrop?

AirDrop is the one people know, between iPhones, iPads and Macs, with Wi‑Fi and Bluetooth on and receiving set to Contacts Only or Everyone for 10 Minutes (Apple's guide). Apple doesn't publish its speed. heise, the German tech magazine, describes about 4 MB/s as normal and 10 to 15 MB/s in the best conditions (2022), and tests between the newest iPhones and MacBook Pros on Apple's community site reached about 85 MB/s up close. Linksy's 70 to 85 MB/s between a phone and a computer is in that range. Two phones, I still have to measure.

What do I need?

• Linksy for Android on both phones, 0.2.9 or newer for Wi‑Fi Direct between them; the newest is 0.3.3. The receiving phone needs Linksy open, or Keep running in the background on.
• Android 10 or newer on both for the direct link. Older phones send through the router.
• The same Wi‑Fi on both, with Wi‑Fi on.
• Nearby devices (Android 13 and newer) or Location (12 and older), which Linksy asks for once, the first time a big file goes. Without it, files go through the router.
• Wi‑Fi Direct for big files on in Settings. It's on unless you turned it off.

What's next?

I'll measure two phones side by side, the same way as the phone and the computer, and add the number here. Phone to phone is one of many combinations: see what else you can build with several phones and computers, or how Wi‑Fi Direct works with a computer. Linksy is free and open source, and more articles are on the blog.