P2P local file transfer based on WebRTC • Hacker News Board

Re: P2P local file transfer based on WebRTC

#21

Post by spwa4 » Thu, Jul 16, 2026, 7:36 AM UTC

saidinesh5 wrote: post #19

lardosaurusrex wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was easy for all of 6 or 7 months on android until someone at google realised their quick share feature prevented them from getting your data and subscription money and proceeded to immediately shoot themselves in the foot. thank konqi for kde connect.

Wait, what happened to quick share?

It's being limited

https://www.androidauthority.com/android-quick-share-removin...

(I wonder if this is a demand from the Chinese state, because when Apple modified airdrop it was because protestors were using it to spread ... well read https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/nov/11/apple-limits-i... )

Re: P2P local file transfer based on WebRTC

#22

Post by theNotFractured » Thu, Jul 16, 2026, 9:20 AM UTC

felooboolooomba wrote: post #6

It's crazy that in 2026, transferring files between two random, willing, devices is still a hassle.

Try localsend https://localsend.org/

Re: P2P local file transfer based on WebRTC

#23

Post by y42 » Thu, Jul 16, 2026, 10:01 AM UTC

shameles self promotion: I posted similar thing a couple of days ago:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48773805

https://9.1-1-1.de

Re: P2P local file transfer based on WebRTC

#24

Post by Saris » Thu, Jul 16, 2026, 12:41 PM UTC

theNotFractured wrote: post #22

felooboolooomba wrote: post #6

It's crazy that in 2026, transferring files between two random, willing, devices is still a hassle.

Try localsend https://localsend.org/

Localsend is great, I use it a lot for random stuff!

Re: P2P local file transfer based on WebRTC

#25

Post by jech » Thu, Jul 16, 2026, 1:18 PM UTC

Orphis wrote: post #12

jech wrote: post #2

Nice design, but that's the kind of functionality that's best integrated within a chat or videoconferencing application, since within a conference you can be pretty sure that you send the file to the right person. For a demo, go to https://galene.org:8443/group/public/hn/ >. Login twice in two different browser tabs (leave the password field empty). Click on the username of your partner, and choose Send file .

In modern conferencing applications, users are not connected with each other, they are connected with a central server. Transferring files shouldn't involve that central server, so you'd need to establish a direct connection between the users, and with network topologies those days, it will most likely require a relay between the two. It's not great.

> Transferring files shouldn't involve that central server, so you'd need to establish a direct connection between the users

That's exactly what Galene does when a user requests a file transfer.

> with network topologies those days, it will most likely require a relay between the two

We perform NAT traversal by using the server to punch holes in both NATs. Only if that fails (due to a symmetric NAT or to an overly restrictive firewall) do we fall back to relaying through the server.