> We used to be able to send files over Bluetooth before the iPhone came out.

Cross platforms, really? So for example between a Blackberry and a Windows CE phone?

> Cross platforms, really? So for example between a Blackberry and a Windows CE phone?

Yes, it was part of the Bluetooth file transfer spec[0] and possible between any two devices that implemented it correctly.

0: https://www.bluetooth.com/specifications/specs/file-transfer...

When I was in high school we chatted exchanging notes/txt files between Nokias, LGs, Samsungs and Sony Ericsson feature phones and Windows Mobile (I had an HP one) and Symbian (two friends who had a N95) smartphones.

This was just as broadband was getting popular, so those who had it usually downloaded MP3s and then distributed them at school through Bluetooth. I remember one friend using her phone as a bridge to copy files from me using Bluetooth and sending to another friend's phone using IR.

This was across all the classroom, this definitely wasn't restricted to the nerdy clique. We found out that chatting through notes exchange worked pretty well and then it spread like wildfire. SMSes were expensive in my country!

This was like 20 years ago. Maybe 2006-2007. Twenty years later we're commemorating that Bluetooth File Exchange over WiFi is now interoperable between the only two major mobile OS as if it were a revolutionary technology. How backwards it is.

Yes. When my mom got her first Android phone, she wanted to transfer all her photos from her Motorola Razr flip phone. She said the guy at the AT&T store had a device that would plug in to the data ports of various phones and transfer stuff between them, but it wouldn't do it, so he declared it impossible.

My mom was upset that she would lose her photos, so I puzzled over it for a long time trying to figure out a way. Finally, I realized I was being stupid and missing the obvious: both phones had Bluetooth! I paired them with each other, dug through Razr menus, selected the photos, and did a Bluetooth file send. As expected, the photos went right over. Well, I shouldn't say right over because it was very slow, but it worked just as it should.

Most of what are called "dumbphones" allowed easy file sharing over bluetooth. Even the cheapest ones.

Yes, even "dumb" phones could share files with computers back then. Apple users have no idea how much harm their masters have done to society.

Not just phones, the Mac as well. So it’s not like Apple doesn’t know about this feature of Bluetooth. They just chose not to do it on the iPhone.

I don’t know about blackberry, but it worked fine between feature phone Nokias and windows pdas / phones (before windows phone 7).

Yea, there's a Bluetooth protocol for it called OBEX.