Samsung’s Galaxy S26 Phones Will Work With Apple’s AirDrop, Much Like the Pixel 10

Samsung’s Galaxy S26 phones will gain the ability to use Apple’s AirDrop this week, allowing the company’s Galaxy phones to directly share photos and files with iPhone and Mac computers.

Samsung is announcing the new feature Sunday night, which will need to be turned on from the phone’s settings menu. The feature will be arriving in an update to devices over the course of this week, and when it does, the Quick Share settings menu will gain a Share with Apple devices toggle. 

Enlarge Image

After it’s activated, the Quick Share feature on the Galaxy phone will be able to see Apple devices by opening the Quick Share menu, and can then send photos or files by selecting the device. For an iPhone to see the Galaxy phone, the device’s AirDrop settings need to be set to Everyone.

This is similar to how AirDrop compatibility works with Google’s Pixel 10 phones, which gained the feature in a software update last fall. Samsung says AirDrop compatibility will eventually come to more Galaxy phones and is starting with the S26 series.

Samsung says that the addition of AirDrop compatibility is meant to help with the company’s ongoing effort to have its phones work with other operating systems. And because Apple and Samsung often dominate the best-selling phone lists around the world, the ability to share photos and media using AirDrop and QuickShare could quickly become ubiquitous. This could be especially true if Samsung expands this to its lower-cost phone lineup eventually, such as the $200 Galaxy A17.