Last year, Chinese smartphone makers Xiaomi, OPPO, and Vivo had announced an alliance for a cross-device file transfer protocol. Now, four more smartphone manufacturers have joined this alliance — OnePlus, Realme, Meizu and Black Shark.

With these four smartphone brands joining the list, over 400 million users are expected to get benefit of this file transfer service. So now, users of these smartphone companies will soon be able to transfer files among each other quickly without need for third-party apps.

P2P File Transfer Alliance

For those who are unaware, the peer-to-peer (P2P) cross-device file transfer protocol allows user to directly and easily share files without need for any of the third-party applications. Think of it as a feature similar to Apple‘s AirDrop for Android smartphones.

Although the file transfer alliance was announced last year, the companies were working on the technology and the official rollout of the feature began earlier this year in February. The feature is soon expected to be available for these four newly joined brands.

The technology uses Wi-Fi P2P and thus allows users to transfer files at speeds of up to 20MB/s. The Wi-Fi P2P feature doesn’t interfere with the Wi-Fi functionality of the devices in any way. The protocol also supports a wide range of file formats including photos, videos, and documents.

While several smartphone brands have their own file transfer service, there was no unified method for cross-brand file transfers. With so many China-based phone makers joining the alliance, Android users will finally get a seamless file transfer feature, at least for those who are using phones from any of these brands.