Instashare is the AirDrop alternative for iOS and OS X devices. If you have an iPhone/iPad or iPod Touch and a Mac, this app will make your life easier. Using apps on your iOS devices and Mac computer and utilizing your Wifi or Bluetooth connection, Instashare lets you copy just about any type of file to your iDevice and carry it with you. You can even share files easily between multiple iOS devices.
Using Instashare is as hassle free as downloading and installing its apps for the first time. Apps for Mac (not in Mac App Store yet, a beta for now) and iOS can be downloaded for free. Once installed and connected to the same network, the apps easily find each other once you try to share a file whether it’s from your iPhone/iPad to Mac or vice versa or even between iOS devices. From the Mac app, you can transfer any type of file to the iOS device while from the mobile devices, only photos and videos available in the Photos app can be transferred due to the restrictive nature of the file system in iOS.
From OS X, sharing files is as easy as dragging and dropping any file to the Instashare icon in the top menu bar or the dock icon. You need to ensure that the app on iOS is open at the same time so that both apps can detect each other. To start the transfer, approval is required on the device but that’s it. No matter how big the file, it’ll transfer as fast as your network is. According to the developers, Instashare takes around 5 seconds to transfer a 10MB file from Mac to iOS device. You can also transfer multiple files at a time which makes it very convenient in certain situations.
Sharing from iOS device is simple as well – it shows you a list of all your photos and videos and allows you to drag any file to your Mac or another iOS device. The UI is beautiful and works flawlessly although there is no way to share multiple files at a time with other devices yet.
The iPhone/iPad app is free but ad-supported. If you pay a little, you can get the ads removed for good.
We would highly recommend this app since it delivers on its promise and for a price of free, you can’t go wrong with it. Instashare was tested between an iPhone 5, iPad and a MacBook Air for this review.
