Sending files over the Internet often takes too long and transferring them via direct connection is a nightmare of incompatibility. Sure, you can tap two Samsung phones together to share that HD video, but what about when your friend has an iPhone or a PC laptop? Enter Lenovo's SHAREIt, a new free app from the leading PC vendor that lets you send files between any Android, iOS, Windows or Mac OS devices in the room over Wi-Fi direct. SHAREit even sends files to entire groups, and works just as well whether you own a Lenovo device or not.
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SHAREit is one of Lenovo's new suite of DoIT apps, which include SYNCIt, for backing up phone contacts and other data, SECUREIt for keeping your phone virus-free and two camera functions: SNAPIt and SEEIt. All of the non-camera functions are available as free downloads for any Android device. However, SHAREIt stands out by offering a more compelling and comprehensive Wi-Fi direct sharing service than we've seen elsewhere.
Lenovo's Ashley Perry gave us a demo of SHAREIt, showing just how easy it is to use this application for high-speed, local file transfers. First, she opened SHAREIt on a Lenovo VibeX phone, hit the send button and selected a photo from her gallery. Then a list of local devices running SHAREIt (with receive mode on) appeared and she hit send to transfer the file to a coworker who was also on a Vibe X.
She then entered Group Sharing mode and selected an existing group, which consisted of two other devices. The group screen looked and acted like a powerful chatroom as Perry sent text messages to the other users then pulled up a whiteboard mode and sent a drawing directly to the other users. She also said she could send files to group.
Perry then demonstrated pairing with a PC, using a Moto X to communicate with her ThinkPad laptop, which was running a Windows version of SHAREit. From her handset, she was not only able to send photos to the laptop, but also to go forward or backward through slides in PowerPoint, a real benefit for business users.
Users can download SHAREIt for Android from the Google Play, the iOS version from the Apple App store and the PC version from kc.lenovo.com.
