PairOnce

IPHONE ↔ ANDROID · PHOTOS

Send photos between an iPhone and an Android phone without an app

Open paironce.com on both phones. On one, tap Show my code; scan that QR code with the other phone’s camera, then tap Choose files and pick the photos.

The other phone taps Accept and Save. The photos arrive as the same files, not the shrunken copies a text message sends.

Android phones with Chrome and iPhones with iOS 26 or later receive files up to 2 GB each, so even long videos go across; older iPhones take up to 50 MB per file.

Step by step

  1. Open PairOnce on both phones. Use Safari on the iPhone and Chrome on the Android phone, and go to paironce.com on each.
  2. Show a code on one phone. Tap Show my code. It shows a QR code and a six-digit code.
  3. Connect from the other phone. Point its camera at the QR code and open the link, or type the six digits. Check that both screens show the same safety code, then tap Approve device. A page opened from a QR code or link asks you to confirm first: tap Connect.
  4. Choose the photos. On the sending phone, tap Choose files and pick from the photo library or gallery. Keep both screens on until everything has arrived.
  5. Accept and save. On an iPhone, tap Accept, then Share and Save Image to put a photo in Photos. On Android, Save puts it in Downloads, which the gallery usually shows. Then tap Remove from this page to make room for more.

HEIC photos on Android

iPhone photos are often HEIC, and PairOnce sends them as they are. Most current Android phones open HEIC in the gallery or in Google Photos. If one does not, set the iPhone’s Settings › Camera › Formats to Most Compatible for future photos, which saves them as JPEG.

Why texted photos look blurry

Between an iPhone and an Android phone, Messages falls back to MMS or RCS instead of iMessage, and photos are usually made smaller on the way. Bluetooth does not help either: an iPhone does not send files to Android over Bluetooth.

Documents and videos, not just photos

The same steps work for PDFs, documents and videos: PairOnce sends each file as it is, so a PDF arrives as the same PDF. Android phones with Chrome and iPhones with iOS 26 or later take files up to 2 GB each; older iPhones up to 50 MB. On an iPhone or iPad the saved file is in the Files app, in Downloads; on Android it is in Downloads.

Limits, and when this is not the right tool

  • A file can be up to 2 GB over a direct connection when the receiving browser saves straight to disk (Chrome or Edge on a computer or Android, Firefox on a computer, Safari on iOS 26 or later). Other browsers take up to 50 MB per file and hold 100 MB of received files at a time.
  • Files over 2 GB need PairOnce Pro on one of the two devices. Then a file can be up to 10 GB, received the same way, and the relay carries 5 GB a month.
  • When the two devices cannot reach each other directly, an encrypted relay carries the data. Each device can send and receive 200 MB a month that way, counted together; a direct connection has no monthly limit.
  • Both pages must stay open until everything has arrived: keep the phone’s screen on and the browser in front.
  • PairOnce moves things between two devices that are open at the same time. It is not cloud storage: nothing waits on a server for later.

Other ways to do it

  • Quick Share with AirDrop. Pixel 9 and later (not 9a) and some newer Samsung, OnePlus, Oppo and Vivo phones can send to an iPhone that has AirDrop set to Everyone for 10 minutes. Check Google’s list for your model.
  • Google Photos. Install it on the iPhone, back up, then share an album link. Works at any distance, but everything goes through the cloud first.
  • WhatsApp. Easy if you already chat, but photos are compressed unless you send them as a document.
  • LocalSend. Free and open source. It mainly works through its app on both phones, on the same Wi-Fi; its web version also stays on one network and does not work with the app yet.

Common questions

Will the photos lose quality?

No. PairOnce sends each file byte for byte and checks it on arrival. Nothing is recompressed.

Do we need to add each other or install anything?

No. Both phones only open paironce.com; there is no account and no app.

Does it work on mobile data or different Wi-Fi?

Yes. If the phones cannot reach each other directly, an encrypted relay carries the data, with 200 MB a month per device.

Can I send a long video?

Yes. An Android phone with Chrome or an iPhone with iOS 26 or later takes videos up to 2 GB each; older iPhones up to 50 MB.

What if a PDF will not send from an iPhone to an Android phone in a message?

Between an iPhone and an Android phone, Messages falls back to MMS or RCS, and attachments are limited in size. In the browser the PDF goes across as it is, at full size.

Does it use mobile data?

If a phone is on mobile data, yes: the file travels over that connection, directly or through the encrypted relay (200 MB a month per device), and uses about as much data as the file itself. On Wi-Fi it uses none of your mobile plan.