Samsung’s Galaxy S26 series was the first to bring AirDrop compatibility to Quick Share earlier this year, but Google confirmed at The Android Show I/O Edition 2026 that the feature is now expanding to a broader set of Samsung devices.
The list covers the Galaxy S24 and S25 lines in full, along with the Z Fold 6, Z Fold 7, Z Flip 6, Z Flip 7, and the Z TriFold. Several of these have already received the update through the stable One UI 8.5 rollout.
The Galaxy S23 series is out. So are the Z Flip 5 and Z Fold 5. The entire Galaxy A, F, M, and Tab A lineup is absent, and no Tab S device appears on the list either. If you’re on anything older or more affordable than the S24 generation, this feature isn’t coming to your device anytime soon, possibly ever.
That’s not an arbitrary decision. AirDrop on Android isn’t simply a software toggle. It depends on Apple’s AWDL protocol, a peer-to-peer wireless technology purpose-built for the Apple ecosystem. Google reportedly reverse-engineered AWDL using Rust, a memory-safe programming language, to build a compatible implementation that lets Android devices talk directly to iPhones and Macs without going through external servers. That kind of low-level networking requires chipset support that older and mid-range hardware may not have.
So while the feature will keep expanding, it’s likely to stay a premium-tier offering for the foreseeable future. Budget and mid-range buyers looking for seamless cross-platform file sharing will need to keep relying on workarounds like Google Drive or third-party apps.
The gap between flagship and everything else just got a little wider.
