AWDL is such an amazing technology, it's understandable that Apple wants to keep it only for their devices as it gives them a noticeable advantage for quick stuff sharing.

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neilalexander 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

They didn't. Apple contributed the core logic to the Wi-Fi Alliance to build Wi-Fi Aware, which they now also support.

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foltik 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

Interestingly, it still took the EU to force them to actually adopt it (and open it up for apps to use) in iOS 26.

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throw0101c 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

PSA:

* https://www.wi-fi.org/wi-fi-aware-resources

* https://developer.apple.com/documentation/WiFiAware

* https://developer.android.com/develop/connectivity/wifi/wifi...

	▲	gregoriol a day ago \| parent [-]
		Apple docs say iOS 26/macOS 26, that's so brand new that no apps are using it right now, will have to check that again in a few years.

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Gigachad 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Kind of. When I looked, they added the api for devs to use on iOS, but it isn’t on macOS yet, and nothing uses it as far as I could see.

It’s a future promising tech though. A much better version of Wi-Fi Direct.

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max8539 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

So, should there be apps that use it to transfer files between iOS, Android, Windows, and Mac without requiring them to be on the same network?

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jeroenhd a day ago | parent | next [-]

Google's QuickShare contains a reverse-engineered AWDL implementation that works on Pixel and a few other phones.

As for WiFi NAN: support for it seems rather limited outside of iOS and Android. From what I can tell the feature is barely tested on Linux and I can't find any generic Windows APIs for it either.

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Asmod4n 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

No WiFi cards for pcs support it.

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ssl-3 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

That's not quite accurate, I don't think.

I've definitely used STA and AP modes concurrently on my Windows laptop with the operating system's built-in internet connection sharing function to help troubleshoot a problem in the field.

That was around a decade ago. It didn't take any extra effort on my part; I just told it to do the thing, and then it did that thing.

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max8539 a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Researched this for a bit: there is some hardware for PCI supporting it, but Windows 10/11 not, and Linux is still work in progress, so no real support on OS level, only for some iOS/Android devices.

	▲	Asmod4n a day ago \| parent [-]
		Afaik the hardware supports it for a while now, but there is no firmware to expose the functionality.

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sleepybrett 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

it might be interesting to use unused or extra wifi cards to support this. My pc motherboard has both wifi and ethernet and I only use the ethernet. That card does absolutely nothing at all.

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tencentshill 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The EU required they use an open standard https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/11/the-eu-made-apple-ad...

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lxgr 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

AWDL really isn't that novel, neither as an idea nor implementation. What Apple did nail is the user experience on top of it.

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2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

[deleted]

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kennywinker 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Except 20% of the time it just doesn’t work. Hardly an advantage if most people default to texting because of airdrop’s failure rate

	▲	gregoriol a day ago \| parent \| next [-]
		We have been using AWDL intensely (not via AirDrop but Network.framework) for 6+ years and it fails less than 5% of the time. It's pretty impressive for a non-connected link between devices. The most common problems we face are very high device density places (100+ device in 30sqm space) and device wandering out of reach quickly (sometime as low as 5m).
	▲	hahamaster 2 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Agreed. It's been like that for years.