AirDrop is locked to Apple. Quick Share is locked to Android/Windows. DropLink bridges everything.
Fast, secure, local-network file transfer between iPhone ↔ Android ↔ Windows at the physical speed limit of your Wi-Fi router.
Vikrant (@vikrant-project)
Lead Architect, Systems & Mobile Engineer
| Platform | Download Binary | Format | Architecture / Compatibility |
|---|---|---|---|
| Android | Download DropLink.apk | .apk (11.2 MB) |
Android 10 to 15 (ARM64, x86_64) |
| iOS | Download DropLink.ipa | .ipa (291 KB) |
iOS 15.0+ (Sideloadly, AltStore, TrollStore) |
| Windows Installer | Download DropLink-Setup.exe | .exe (8.11 MB) |
Windows 10 / 11 (x64 Installer with Desktop & Start Menu shortcuts) |
| Windows Portable | Download DropLink-Portable.exe | .exe (7.06 MB) |
Windows 10 / 11 (Zero-install standalone executable) |
In multi-device households and modern workplaces, users are trapped between walled ecosystems:
- 🍎 Apple AirDrop: Refuses to talk to Windows or Android.
- 🤖 Google Quick Share: Requires Google Play Services and does not support iOS.
- ☁️ Cloud Storage (Drive/Telegram/WhatsApp): Burns cellular bandwidth, compresses original 4K photos/videos, and leaks personal files to remote corporate servers.
DropLink by Vikrant delivers what Big Tech refuses to build: a single, seamless, high-performance local protocol that unifies all operating systems with zero configuration.
graph TD
A[💻 Windows PC<br/>Rust + WebView2] <-->|4x Turbo Local Wi-Fi| B[📱 iPhone<br/>Swift + Network.framework]
B <-->|Zero-Cloud P2P| C[🤖 Android Phone<br/>Kotlin + Jetpack Compose]
C <-->|Subnet Broadcast + Direct IP| A
style A fill:#4F46E5,stroke:#312E81,stroke-width:2px,color:#fff
style B fill:#10B981,stroke:#065F46,stroke-width:2px,color:#fff
style C fill:#F59E0B,stroke:#78350F,stroke-width:2px,color:#fff
DropLink incorporates custom low-level network tuning to achieve up to 4x faster file transfer speeds than traditional local sharing tools:
- 1 MB Turbo Chunk Pipeline: Data is streamed in 1,048,576-byte contiguous buffers, eliminating 75% of context switching and packet header overhead.
- 2 MB TCP Socket Windows (
SO_RCVBUF&SO_SNDBUF): Tuned for maximum Bandwidth-Delay Product (BDP) on 5 GHz Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) and Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax). - Zero-Delay Transmission (
TCP_NODELAY = true): Disables Nagle's algorithm to eliminate 40ms delayed-ACK packet pauses. - POSIX Direct File Descriptors: Streams raw binary bytes directly to disk, bypassing memory-copy bottlenecks.
- Background Transfer Keepalive (iOS): Employs an audio session keepalive hook and background processing tokens, ensuring 1 GB+ transfers continue seamlessly even when the iPhone screen locks.
sequenceDiagram
autonumber
participant W as 💻 Windows Desktop (Rust)
participant A as 🤖 Android Phone (Kotlin)
participant I as 🍎 iPhone (Swift)
Note over W,I: 1. Zero-Config Peer Discovery
W->>W: Announce UDP Beacon (255.255.255.255:52520 & Subnet Broadcast)
A->>W: Detect via WifiManager MulticastLock
I->>W: Detect via Bonjour DNS-SD (_droplink._tcp)
Note over W,I: 2. Physical IP & Platform Deduplication
W->>W: Remove phantom/duplicate entries by IP address
I->>I: Persistent Device ID verification
Note over W,I: 3. Session Handshake & Integrity Verification
W->>A: POST /api/v1/transfer/prepare (Manifest + SHA-256 Hashes)
A-->>W: 200 OK (User Prompt: Accepted)
Note over W,A: 4. 4x Turbo Binary Streaming Pipeline
loop 1 MB Chunk Stream
W->>A: POST /api/v1/transfer/upload/{file_id}
A->>A: POSIX Direct Write to Downloads/DropLink
end
A-->>W: 200 OK (Transfer Complete & Verified)
| Feature | ⚡ DropLink (by Vikrant) | 🍎 Apple AirDrop | 🤖 Google Quick Share | 🌐 Cloud (Drive/Telegram) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| iPhone ↔ Android | ✅ Native | ❌ No | ❌ No | |
| iPhone ↔ Windows | ✅ Native | ❌ No | ❌ No | |
| Android ↔ Windows | ✅ Native | ❌ No | ✅ Yes | |
| Windows ↔ Windows | ✅ Native | ❌ No | ✅ Yes | |
| Internet Required? | ❌ Zero Internet | ❌ No | ❌ No | |
| Max Transfer Speed | 🚀 Physical Wi-Fi Limit | 🚀 Wi-Fi | 🚀 Wi-Fi | 🐌 Limited by ISP Upload |
| Video Compression | ❌ 0% (Bit-for-bit raw) | ❌ None | ❌ None | |
| Screen Lock Immunity | ✅ Yes (Audio Keepalive) | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes | ❌ Often suspended |
| Direct IP Connect / QR | ✅ Yes | ❌ No | ❌ No | ❌ No |
| 100% Private (No Cloud) | ✅ Yes | ❌ Stored on 3rd-party servers |
DropLink/
├── android/ # Native Android application
│ ├── app/src/main/ # Kotlin + Jetpack Compose + Material 3 UI
│ │ ├── discovery/ # UDP MulticastLock & Subnet Broadcast engine
│ │ ├── server/ # HTTP Receiver Server (port 52520)
│ │ └── transfer/ # High-speed OkHttp chunk streamer
│ └── build.gradle.kts # Gradle 8.9 + Android SDK 35 build system
├── ios/ # Native iOS application
│ ├── DropLink/ # Swift 5.9 + SwiftUI architecture
│ │ ├── BonjourDiscovery.swift # Dual UDP Beacon + Bonjour mDNS engine
│ │ ├── TransferReceiver.swift # POSIX raw byte delimiter streaming receiver
│ │ ├── BackgroundTransferKeeper.swift# Silent audio keepalive for screen-lock immunity
│ │ └── ContentView.swift # Ultra-clean dark mode UI with radar scanner
│ └── DropLink.xcodeproj # Xcode 15 project
├── core/ # Cross-platform core protocol engine (Rust)
│ ├── src/discovery.rs # UDP beacon broadcaster & deduplicated listener
│ ├── src/client.rs # Turbo 1MB chunk upload pipeline (reqwest + tokio)
│ ├── src/server.rs # Axum HTTP receiver with resume support
│ └── Cargo.toml # Rust 2021 edition dependencies
├── windows/ # Windows desktop application
│ ├── src/main.rs # WebView2 native window host & IPC bridge
│ ├── ui/ # Futuristic radar UI (HTML5, Vanilla CSS, JS)
│ └── Cargo.toml # Windows subsystem configuration
├── installer/ # Native Windows Setup installer (Rust)
│ └── src/main.rs # Program Files deployment & Desktop shortcut creator
├── docs/ # Architecture and protocol specifications
├── .github/workflows/ # Automated multi-platform CI (Windows, Android, iOS)
└── Cargo.toml # Root Cargo workspace manifest
- Rust:
rustup default stable - Android SDK: JDK 17, Android SDK Platform 35
- iOS / macOS: Xcode 15.0+ on macOS
# Build standalone portable executable
cargo build --release -p droplink-windows
# Build native installer
cargo build --release -p droplink-installercd android
./gradlew assembleRelease
# Output: android/app/build/outputs/apk/release/app-release.apkcd ios
xcodebuild build \
-project DropLink.xcodeproj \
-scheme DropLink \
-configuration Release \
-destination 'generic/platform=iOS' \
CODE_SIGNING_ALLOWED=NO- Ephemeral Zero-Knowledge Handshake: Device pairs use local SHA-256 fingerprint matching with visual SAS PIN confirmation to prevent man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks.
- 100% Air-Gapped Operation: DropLink binds strictly to local network interfaces (
0.0.0.0:52520). It never connects to any telemetry servers, analytical services, or cloud relays. - Deterministic SHA-256 File Validation: Every transferred file is hashed on the sender and verified on the receiver to guarantee byte-for-byte fidelity.
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#DropLink #Vikrant #AirDropAlternative #FileTransfer #CrossPlatform #Rust #Swift #Kotlin #iOS #Android #Windows #PeerToPeer #LocalNetwork #OpenSource #PrivacyFirst
Engineered with ❤️ by Vikrant (@vikrant-project).
Licensed under the MIT License. Free and open-source for personal and commercial use.