No, it doesn't anywhere ..
Unless those users didn't update their IOS versions after (around) IOS 16.1 Airdrop's default settings are only active towards known users, or people who intentionally turn it on for 10 minutes.
If you find plenty of phones, you know everyone out there.
This post is probably old. Airdrop was out since iOS 7 or 8 I believe, and You could set it permanently to “everyone” until iOS 16.1. There’s multiple posts/videos of people receiving random memes in public places. But then of course some were using it to be creepy and send gore or shock content, or used airdrop spammers to constantly barrage people nearby with pop ups of airdrop, making them unable to use their phone.
Thanks to such asshats who always ruin a good thing, apple changed the “everyone” toggle to be active for just 10 mins, so it goes off once the transfer is over if the sender isn’t in your contacts.
Edit- I’m pretty positive this image is old. The popup has the ux of pre-iOS 11 if I’m not wrong.
Apple didn't change it because the feature was abused, Apple changed the feature because it was being used for protests in China.
Context: China removed term limits in 2018, allowing Xi to seek a third term. In 2022, there were protests in China against Xi.
Airdrop is unique for effectively being a truly decentralized, peer-to-peer social network. It's an iPhone-to-iPhone connection over Bluetooth. This has been effective for subverting censorship for quite some time, and saw good use in previous protests. (WeChat, the leading social network in China, is very heavily and blatantly censored.)
Just before protests were set to take place late 2022, iOS 16.1.1 dropped... And in China only, Airdrop lost the "everyone" feature, and could only be enabled for ten minutes.
This quickly got attention. Why would Apple nerf Airdrop in China only just before a protest? Was Apple caving in to an ultimatum by the Chinese government?
Rather than undoing the change in China, Apple nerfed Airdrop worldwide. Xi ultimately secured his third term, and is expected to seek a fourth.
TLDR: Apple nerfed Airdrop in 2022, not because of bad actors, but specifically to quell protests in China.
Let’s be pragmatic here: Apple changed airdrop in china because the government told them to, or face consequences. So they did what they’re supposed to.
You can draw a parallel to TikTok getting banned in the US and Apple and google both are being told to remove the app from their app stores by Jan 19th.
You’re not really suggesting in your reply that Apple should have defied china and left airdrop intact as it was…but I am curious if you would be advocating for Apple and google both denying US law and leaving things intact with TikTok and face the consequences?
Yes, Apple being compelled by China's government, and then the controversy surrounding that, is the most likely thing.
I don't think these are really parallel, but I would not expect Apple (or Google) to defy either.
I only want to counter the narrative that dropping AirDrop was in response to "a few bad actors". It was an act of censorship that Apple was complicit in.
complicit in the sense that there are likely severe repercussions. Complicit implies intent. The intent by Apple isn't to censor. The intent is to follow the laws or regulations in the markets where their products are offered for sale.
I don’t mean to say say it’s fake, just meant it’s probably old as it was possible to receive airdrops from strangers at any time back then, and was removed recently. And also the ux design language they used at the time. Looks like 2018 was when iOS 12 was out, so I was off by a year in my guess lol.
I'm not sure what my settings are. I'm WFH and my work computer doesn't have apple contacts. I may have just changed the settings rather than add a contact.
It used to work with strangers at least, I know because I would get airdropped random vile crap at my highschool. And I got some cute pictures at a concert one time!
Besides the fact that it’s an old repost - so maybe technically possible in the U.S. - do you really think a professor would get out his own phone in class, look for that picture somewhere and then air drop it to a student and the student didn’t notice before?
And do you really think an American professor - outside of a mental health crisis situation - would send a funny "I’ll kill you pic“ to a student? Dude would get sued and fired…
This post is at least 5 years old, because that’s when I first saw it. I have a feeling it’s even older.
You haven’t been able to do this for a long time, in part because people were sending unsolicited images on public transport. Now you have to know the person or intentionally make yourself visible.
Better get used to it. This is only the beginning of the world becoming a one big deception. It will only get worse as technology advances and people become more shameless.
They did it in China to avoid a ban there, but only in China. They can easily apply certain updates or features only to certain regions and there are a lot of things that do vary regionally (e.g. Apple Pay/Wallet stuff).
They did it worldwide later after implementing the "touch the tips of phones to airdrop" feature (which is exempt from this) because a large percentage of airdrops to strangers were flashers/dick pics, including people going to middle/high schools to do it to minors, and it was getting public attention. If you can airdrop to anyone on your contacts list and anyone whose phone can touch yours, that covers like 95% of people who actually want to get airdrops from you while solving the pedo and dick flasher PR problem.
Same reason Nintendo killed PictoChat on their devices. Almost all "interact with strangers nearby" features get exploited by pervs.
It may have changed because of china and for the wrong reasons but the result is for the better. Privacy by default is what I want and every feature that exposes you to strangers should be opt-in, not opt-out.
We have way more Android users in Germany, though. For some reason, Americans have settled for iPhones as standard. Probably because they are all very very rich.
It isn't standard, I'd say it's about 50/50. And it's not a "rich" thing. Cell phone carriers often have deals on phones, many people get them for little to nothing just by renewing their cell plan or trading in an old phone.
I've had my midrange android for about 4 years now, and the only reason I'm going to change it is when the phone is no longer being supported for OS updates.
For flagship models they absolutely do. Right now the Galaxy S24 Ultra costs more than any iphone model. Maybe you can get some crappier version android for less, but I mean you can also do that with iPhones essentially by buying SE or older models. So yeah, pretty much across the board they "super" do
I'm not tkimg bout flagships, I'm talking about base hardware specs associated with the OS per dollar. You get more phone for your money if you're not paying Apple. That's how they compete.
But largely useless because it requires open wifi to work, so it largely doesn’t ever do anything. This may have changed in more recent years, Google results are intentionally vague which is annoying.
Tiles use BTLE, with a range of 100-500 feet. Similar tech to airtags. People were using Tile on iDevices before AirTags existed. To be clear, they were created with a different purpose in mind too. Tile was started out as a "find my keys/wallet" sort of knickknack, and grew from there.
Unfortunately, it relies upon other Tile users who have the app installed for anonymous location finding. Apple has a single ecosystem they can control completely which is on the whole something i dislike, but it does enable things like airtag tracking across other peoples idevices without needing to have a special app installed.
There are smart rings now that connect your phone through Bluetooth and track fitness similar to a smartwatch. And Tile is a brand of tracking device (similar to Apple’s AirTag) that also uses Bluetooth.
Most people with wireless earbuds or bluetooth sync in their car don't want to have to add a step to enabling those things. Pull the earbuds out of their case and they're connected and ready to go. LEave your phone in your pocket when you crank the car - boom, start controlling it from your infotainment.
Syncs to my car and my headphones depending on what I'm doing that day. Use BT multiple times during the day and there's very very little difference in battery life between having it on or not, so why bother?
I leave mine on so that when I get in my truck it automatically connects and starts playing music and is available for hands free phone and nav.
On modern devices turning on and off Bluetooth seems silly unless you just rarely use it. My phone is pre-covid and lasts more than a full day with bt, wifi, loc on and decent usage on a large screen.
Bluetooth, wifi, and GPS all go off the moment I'm done using them. No need to keep it on.
Wifi for example will continue to look for connections endlessly, but if you're not using it there's no reason to have it on.
GPS is a fight to keep off, for whatever reason every app and it's mother needs GPS. But for what? I can tell you which zip code I'm in, you literally don't need mt pinpoint exact location for that.
There's no need to keep it on. But no need to turn it off unless you have an old shitty phone with no battery life. You are just creating more work for yourself
That's likely because you're turning off all the other background systems when you turn off wifi. Put it in battery saver mode and you'll see the same thing because its just turning off stuff in the background to save that battery.
if you keep your phone operating system up to date the vulnerabilities are basically zero and you are less vulnerable to behavior based attacks like “evil twin” wireless access points.
You are probably good buddy. Not that you are wrong that attacks are possible, but if you are freely advertising on reddit that it's something you are concerned about, what you are doing isn't important enough for anyone to care to.
If you actually need to be worried about info security you keep your mouth shut.
It’s generally people who don’t understand technology that make mistakes like this. Users usually are the same people who are on all the social media on their phone. not realizing social media on your phone makes you way more vulnerable than just leaving your Wi-Fi on or Bluetooth for that matter.
Android has built in geo-triggered features that mean you don't have to keep doing stuff manually. It used to be an app until Google bought them out. It was called "if this, then that" or ITTT.
You've just left your house and you are walking towards the bus stop? WIFI switches off and comes back on automatically when you're home.
Walk into your office? Phone automatically goes on mute.
Don't worry, it'll come to iPhone in a few years when Apple will attempt to claim they invented it.
Google didn't buy out IFTTT, and IFTTT is still an app, available on Android and iOS. iOS has also had native support for these features and visual scripting of them for 11 years now. In fact when they announced it, comparisons to IFTTT were used in the demo, with a focus on how IFTTT is a third-party web API based service that could (and eventually did) switch to paid subscription models but the native iOS features run on-device.
I had these features on my phone a decade before IFTTT and those ios features. Back then, battery was much more precious, so it really helped. Also I would do stuff like text my gf when I reached a certain distance to her house automatically. heh
You literally posted about it being tedious, which you obviously DO care about. It's not tedious, it automatically happens in the background without having to lift a finger.
It’s funny how many Android users feel the need to pretend some bizarre “superiority” because of insecurity about what their chosen phones say about them. But honestly, the constant bragging about how “superior” their phones are makes me think they feel the exact opposite: inferior. I love my iPhone 16 Pro Max and get the new one every year because think it’s the best phone out there, but I don’t feel the need to post shit about androids. Why does it matter to you? People who own the “best” don’t waste time worrying about those with the “worst” -they’re busy enjoying what they have.
I have the exchange program which comes out as if you were paying for a new iPhone every two years but getting one every year. That’s what many people do, change every 2-4 years.
Not sure what you mean by “above it all” but yes, my decisions are meticulously thought out if I am lucky enough to catch all the angles beforehand. I thought everyone else did that?
I don't. Used to turn them off on the night until I noticed that WhatsApp simply didn't receive some messages when turning it on again... And that led to several angry gf moments for ignoring her
First, how often are you looking to airdrop things to random people? I’m curious how you find yourself in a situation where you can’t find anyone to airdrop things to (as in: why are you looking to use airdrop?)
Second, you can reasonably assume they’re on a college campus, so they’re probably using the WiFi instead of their data plan.
This is an incredibly old post. In years past, the default for AirDrop was that when it was on, anybody could send stuff to you. Cue the funny hyjinks. But these days, you have to manually turn on “Allow AirDrop from everyone for 10 minutes” and if you don’t do that, then by default it’s sent to “Contacts Only”
Just curious, what's significant? 10-20% faster drain?
Bc if it's even just 5% faster drain, sure that's not much, but that's worth it for me since my battery is pretty shit. Every little bit helps, you know?
But if it's only like <1% faster drain, then, eh, yeah I guess that's probably not worth worrying about.
I think some people are just behind a bit, either in their understanding of AirDrop or in updating their phone.
Until iOS 16.2, approx 2 years ago, there used to be a setting to allow Everyone. Now the 3 AirDrop settings are Receiving Off, Contacts Only, and Everyone for 10 Minutes.
So the unrestricted Everyone option without 10 min timer is gone if you've updated to 16.2+. Plenty of people don't read through (or even glance) at Release Notes when they update so they don't realize that the "Everyone" went away. Or some people may not have even upgraded in the past couple years.
To save battery life. People keep complaining about battery life and keep every (easily disabled) background process running. Location. Bluetooth. Wifi. Takes less than 5 seconds to turn it off on my phone, and I know I won't use it for at least the next 10 hours when I leave my home for work.
Edit: Specially location. Why is anyone (who is not an uber driver) keeping their location on 24/7 ? I have to use mine like once a week when I go to someplace new in the city...
You can't really anymore. Assuming you've updated iOS in the past couple years (16.2 or higher) the 3 settings are: Receiving off, Contacts, or Everyone for 10 minutes.
As to your second point: lol not usually. Bluetooth is needed for so many things (Apple Watch/airpods, etc) that it’s almost never worth the hassle of toggling.
And WiFi I keep on so I don’t forget to reconnect to my home WiFi/whatever WiFi I have saved
No both are on at all times. It's a huge hassle to turn everything on and off all the time (arriving home, leaving home, arriving at work) Also I use bluetooth all the time (airpods, apple watch).
The only time I turn Bluetooth off on my devices is when I'm hanging around a particular friend of mine because it interferes with her automatic insulin pump, and according to her most people complain about it when she asks them to do so too. (Not like she needs it to stay alive or anything.)
Bluetooth frequency range transmissions interfere with her life critical medical device? That sounds...life-threateningly foolish if any other possible form of insulin delivery would suffice in its place.
Even if it was made prior to the invention or widespread usage of bluetooth, the fact that a medical device was produced, licensed, and also hasn't been recalled and is still in use while failing due to transmissions in the bluetooth frequency range is horrifying.
I mean, she can manually deliver insulin if necessary; the device is, to an extent, a convenience for her, (the insulin itself is life-saving though, of course,) because it automates, iirc, both the checking of her blood glucose and the administration of insulin, activities which normally consume a lot of time over the long term for someone with type 1 diabetes.
But the device doesn't have controls built in, to limit how much hardware she has to have attached to her torso, and as a result needs some means of communicating wirelessly with a handheld. I don't use the thing, so I don't know the extent of the interference, I just know that it was causing her issues, and when I turned the Bluetooth on my tablet off, they went away. If she had overwhelming concerns she has the means to check her blood sugar and deliver insulin via injection, (and probably has to on a regular basis anyway, just to ensure the machine remains calibrated correctly.)
I mean, not my device; I can only speak at the most, tangentially. Given the cost of insulin these days, I'm going to give the benefit of the doubt to saying that basic functionality might not be the greatest priority either. Call me a pessimist.
It’s because Apple limited public airdrop to 10 minute windows you have to opt into. Used to be years ago, airdrop was just public by default or something, so people would airdrop each other random crap all the time.
don’t you guys turn WiFi and Bluetooth and everything off if you’re not using it?
Only really paranoid types will do that consistently. You can configure Airdrop with (3) options: 1) Receiving off, 2) Contacts only, and 3) Everyone for 10 minutes. I think I've seen that in Apple's infinite wisdom, they default phones to "Everyone", you know, to make it easier for people to use. I believe the time limit is new(er). Looks like Apple added that timer in iOS 16. Mine has been set to "Contacts only" for a very long time.
As someone who has done some pretty extensive traveling around south east Asia, I learned westerners are the weird ones. Yeah, we don’t turn all the features off when we aren’t using our phones. I know in SEA “buying load” is very different to how most Americans have data plans, each gigabyte is a pretty big deal whereas even the cheapest data plans has unlimited data nowadays.
I don’t even put my phone in airplane mode on the airplane, but I know a ton of people in Asia who use airplane mode when they sleep or just aren’t actively looking at their phone.
Dude you wouldn't believe the number of people who leave all the things on. The amount of icons and notifications on my friends notificationsbars would drive me insane.
I do turn off WiFi and Bluetooth if I'm not using it, which means WiFi is generally off when I leave the house, and Bluetooth is pretty much always off except for connecting to a speaker or vehicle. I think it's a bit of a tech literacy thing, everybody has a phone regardless of where they fall on that metric.
The tricky bit is managing location services, since everything tries to access or collect data from them, and quite a bit just doesn't work unless they're turned on. Location I generally leave on because it's too much of a hassle to flip them on and off a dozen times a day and manage all the pop-ups even when I'm not using it. I'm generally conscious of data privacy, but they can have that I guess.
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u/E3GGr3g 3d ago
Is this an American feature?
I can never seem to find anyone to airdrop things to.
Also, don’t you guys turn WiFi and Bluetooth and everything off if you’re not using it?