Android AirDrop support was actually announced on the Pixel series in 2025, but features like this eventually trickle down to all Android phones. This takes time, though. Galaxy S26 series was the first to get it. But now the One UI 9 update has officially introduced the Quick Share x AirDrop feature to the Galaxy A56 and A57.
By the way, this discovery was made by Samsung Community members in the Philippines. Galaxy S25 FE and S26 FE recently unlocked Quick Share with AirDrop support. And now the Samsung Galaxy A57 and A56 have joined the club in an effort to make file sharing easier with iPhones.
They’ve been pushing One UI 9 to more and more devices worldwide, and apparently, this OTA has reached the Philippines now. This could be the beginning of a cycle in Asia, and we can’t wait to see the update on the Pakistani Galaxy A57 and A56.
Of course, as soon as we heard the news, we did a little sleuthing of our own, only to find that the Samsung latest A mobile might have a bug with this feature, even though it does support AirDrop on Quick Share after the update. A user on the Galaxy A56’s official subreddit page requested support.
In the Quick Share settings, this user toggled the AirDrop feature, but they couldn’t discover nearby Apple devices. The reason could be the WiFi drivers, but there’s more than one theory as to why the feature doesn’t work. You have to test it yourself after installing One UI 9.
It possibly worked fine on the Galaxy A57, just like it did on the Galaxy S25 FE and S26 FE. Anyway, native AirDrop support on Android is great and all. But this doesn’t undermine the value of “Local Send” whatsoever. This has been a great open-source app to share files between Android and iPhone.
Strangely enough, they didn’t include the AirDrop support in the Changelog for any of the phones that got it. So we either have to guess or wait for a user to report AirDrop’s availability as One UI 9 reaches the lower ranks. This update is definitely coming to the Galaxy A37 next. Keep watching the news for more.
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