Thursday 30 April 2020

Snapdrop - transfer files across multiple platforms

We're into week 4 of Emergency Remote Learning (6 if you count the two weeks that were not teacher led) and we have had our fair share of challenges.  We are fortunately to be a tech rich household.  My husband has his PC laptop, I have my Macbook Pro laptop, My oldest son has an iPad and my younger sons each have a Chromebook.  We also have 4 iPhones to use between the 5 of us (two are old ones with no SIM card so are more like iPods since they can't make calls and have no data but can access wifi).  One of the challenges we have faced in when the boys (who are in grades 2 & 4) do work that we need to photograph and put on a Google Slide (for example).  With our older son it was easy, take a photo, airdrop it to his iPad...but for the other guys - no such luck - until now!!

Our old workflow was as follows:
  1. Take a picture on my phone
  2. Airdrop it to my Mac.
  3. Log in to child's Chrome Profile on my Mac
  4. Upload it to their Google Drive
  5. Remind child, who has lost all focus, that we are still working on THEIR work.
  6. Child whines a lot, finds the file and uploads it to the Slide.
Then, my friend Joel Charlebois told me about Snapdrop.  #GAMECHANGER.  It is, as they "the easiest way to transfer files across devices" on the same wifi network.

Snapdrop

I have bookmarked Snapdrop on each device in the house (and added it to my homescreen on the my iPhone).  Now, when we take a picture on one device, we simply open Snapdop on the device with the image and on the the device we want to receive the image.  (In Snapdrop you see all the devices on the network with Snapdrop open - as in the image below)


From the device with the image, click the device to which you want to transfer.  A dialog box will open showing the files on your device.  Find and click the file you want to send.  The receiving computer will see that a file is being transferred.

When the transfer is complete, it will ask if you want to download the file to your device.  If you do, click download, if not, click ignore.


If you choose to download the file, a dialog box will open asking where on the device you want to store the file.   Select your destination and the file is now saved on that device!

It is a great way to transfer across platforms as it work on iOS, MacOS, Android, Windows, etc.

Also, you can send messages from one computer to another by right clicking the device name (or long holding on a mobile device).  A message box will appear, you can type a message and hit send.  The message will appear on that device where Snapdrop is open.



Note, None of your files are ever sent to any server. See the Snapdrop FAQ for more about their privacy.

1 comment:

  1. OMG! There are no words of how amazing this little website is....holy moly. Game changer.

    ReplyDelete