Anyone has a fool proof method? Preferably that does not involve third party apps, or a Foss one.
PS at home I use mixplorer over my home WiFi, but on the go WiFi direct would be useful. I use a Samsung smartphone and lenovo tablet, both on android 14. I can easily connect them, but I never see any WiFi direct option in the share menu (nor Samsung’s quickshare)
EDIT: Enabling Quickshare on both devices then the quickshare icon shows up in the share menu.
Although:
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it asks to deactivate WiFi direct (as Markaos says below, probably so it can decide the best connection type, and probably active WiFi direct on demand)
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it relies on the contacts of the Google account. As I use a dummy and different gmail on both, and Foss apps for contacts, the only way to share is to “allow sharing with everyone for 10 minutes”
So my question remains as to how to use Wi-Fi direct well…directly.
localsend makes it easy.
i used it for android to android, android to mac, mac to ipad, &c
i as a fool can confirm that it’s “fool proof”
hotspot works fine.
one connects to other’s hotspot and both can send/receive files. Helps when you’re out in the middle of nowhere
Localsend has never failed me. You can find it on F-Droid for android and their website for installation options for desktop.
The Quick Share option missing is weird - Nearby Share/Quick Share is supposed to be available on every Android 6 or newer device since roughly 2020. And it’s supposed to be able to automatically figure out a reasonable way to connect the devices (LAN if they are in the same network, Bluetooth or WiFi Direct otherwise).
KDE connect
I tried this between the Samsung and my Debian laptop and none ever recognised the other. Also quite sure it relies on a local network?
I use KDE Connect with my laptop and it just works (Linux with KDE required)
Linux with KDE required
Not true, it’s available for all major distros regardless of DE as well as Windows and Mac OS
