File sharing between phones (WiFi direct., Android beam etc)

[Tony C1]

So I'm looking for an explanation.

Tonight at work a coworker and I tried to share a movie file between our phones. My last phone was a note 3 and he has a note 4 so we used Sbeam which is super fast.

This time we tired android beam. Sbeam and LG'S share beam are based off of Android beam so I thought they would be the same speed. Boy was I wrong. Android beam seemed as slow as Bluetooth.

Next we tried WiFi direct. This worked great in the past so we should of been ok using it now. Wrong again! Every time we tried to send files to or from each other nothing would happen. We connected to each other ok, but couldn't send anything.

So my question is, is this normal? Is it because I now have a LG phone and he has a Samsung? Doesn't matter what transfer protocol we use, none of them will work (WiFi direct) since we are different brands of phones? I can't believe phone manufacturers would go so far to make different phones almost not compatible even whenwhen on the same version of Android OS.

I may have to go back to a Samsung.........

 

[Tony C1]

I can't of been the only one that experienced this?

No one else has tried to share files between themselves and a friend or family member that doesn't have an LG phone?

My problem is everyone I know has a Samsung, including my wife. Researching online I can't find any evidence that says concretely these phone wont work with each other over wifidirect, but there are scattered reports saying they don't.

 

[sjgoten6]

Download super beam app. Easy to use and very fast. That's what I use.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Tony C1]

So I just talked to tech support from Samsung (LG chat no one ever showed up) and this is what they said:

Chat InformationPlease wait for a Samsung Agent to respond.

Chat InformationYou are now chatting with 'Vinay G'. The reference number for this chat is 4295470931. There will be a brief survey at the end of our chat to share feedback on my performance today.

Vinay G: Hi, thank you for contacting Samsung Technical Support. How may I help you today?

Anthony Colombo : Hello Vinay, just a quick question for you

Vinay G: Hi Anthony.

Vinay G: Please feel free to ask anything.

Anthony Colombo : My wife has a S6 and I just recently bought the Lg V10 (had a note 3). Last night my wife and I tried to use wifi-direct to send files back and forth from the phones and that protocol was not working. My old note 3 also could not send files to my LG with wifi-direct either. My question is, does wifi-direct not work between different manufactures ?

Vinay G: That's correct Anthony, Wi Fi direct only works between same manufacture phones. I am afraid it does not work with LG or any other brand.

Anthony Colombo : thats good to know officially. Do you know of the reason why out of curiosity? Are they not the same protocol from phone to phone based on the Android OS or does every manufacturer create theirs differently?

Vinay G: It depends on interface, on which the android platform belongs to. Samsung has touch WiZ interface and LG might have a different one.

Anthony Colombo : oh ok. Well thank you for your time and your help! Hope you have a good rest of your day

Vinay G: Thank you Anthony.


Obviously missing some real technical explanation on my a Samsung touchwiz wifidirect interface wont talk to a LG/HTC/Motorola wifidirect, but it was confirmed that it will not work. My coworker and I even tried superbeam last night and it only worked for sending small files like a picture. Anything bigger than that the app just froze or we would get an error about a "data blocking app / data cap app" that would stop the transmission which was weird.

frustrating. Wish in all their commercials for all phones they would say in the bottom of the screen, "better have the same phones as your friends or it will be a pain in the ***"

 

[sjgoten6]

I'll say it again, super beam. Problem solved

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[lrrowley]

Wifi direct is a protocol, but you still have to have an app to use it. Samsung has S Beam and LG has SmartShare as well, but S beam only works with Samsung devices and SmartShare only works LG devices. Kinda dumb right?

But like others have said here, use Super Beam. It's a wifi direct app that will let you transfer things between any Android devices with WiFi direct. And its super fast too. Just download on each device. Make sure to pair up the devices for wifi direct in the settings first though.

On another note, Android Beam only uses Bluetooth, so that's why it seemed that slow.

 

[markyboy81]

Wifi direct is a protocol, but you still have to have an app to use it. Samsung has S Beam and LG has SmartShare as well, but S beam only works with Samsung devices and SmartShare only works LG devices. Kinda dumb right?

But like others have said here, use Super Beam. It's a wifi direct app that will let you transfer things between any Android devices with WiFi direct. And its super fast too. Just download on each device. Make sure to pair up the devices for wifi direct in the settings first though.

On another note, Android Beam only uses Bluetooth, so that's why it seemed that slow.

Super beam is a good alternative, but so far I've only been able to get it to work reliably when I've had both devices on the same wifi network
It's disappointing that wifi direct doesn't work between my lg v10 and samsung tab.

 

[Knightstalker]

Damn... I got spoiled being able to transfer things so fast using airdrop on iPhone... Gonna try super beam

 

[Brunoarr]

You can try Sunshine to transfer files:
- You can transfer any file number (without size limit) and format from any device to any device for free.
- If you only need to open the file and don't want to download it, you can share files between devices and open those in seconds. For example, you can stream a movie that your friend is sharing with you in a few seconds without downloading it.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.spika.funki.app&hl=en

 

[Ryaan Johnson]

If you want to move movies from your LG and Samsung phone, you can also try Phone Transfer tool. It can directly transfer data between mobile phones, such as contacts, music, movies, photos, text message, apps, etc.

What is sad to me is the v10 is not as easy as the Stylo 2 to share files.. Stylo 2 has a button to "air share" or file drop, kinda like air drop on the iPhones. Really wish the v10 had this software