Supply chains, AI, and the cloud: The biggest failures (and one success) of 2025

A third AI-related proof-of-concept attack that garnered attention used a prompt injection to cause GitLab’s Duo chatbot to add malicious lines to an otherwise legitimate code package. A variation of the attack successfully exfiltrated sensitive user data.

Yet another notable attack targeted the Gemini CLI coding tool. It allowed attackers to execute malicious commands—such as wiping a hard drive—on the computers of developers using the AI tool.

Using AI as bait and hacking assistants

Other LLM-involved hacks used chatbots to make attacks more effective or stealthier. Earlier this month, two men were indicted for allegedly stealing and wiping sensitive government data. One of the men, prosecutors said, tried to cover his tracks by asking an AI tool “how do i clear system logs from SQL servers after deleting databases.” Shortly afterward, he allegedly asked the tool, “how do you clear all event and application logs from Microsoft windows server 2012.” Investigators were able to track the defendants’ actions anyway.

In May, a man pleaded guilty to hacking an employee of The Walt Disney Company by tricking the person into running a malicious version of a widely used open source AI image-generation tool.

And in August, Google researchers warned users of the Salesloft Drift AI chat agent to consider all security tokens connected to the platform compromised following the discovery that unknown attackers used some of the credentials to access email from Google Workspace accounts. The attackers used the tokens to gain access to individual Salesforce accounts and, from there, to steal data, including credentials that could be used in other breaches.

There were also multiple instances of LLM vulnerabilities that came back to bite the people using them. In one case, CoPilot was caught exposing the contents of more than 20,000 private GitHub repositories from companies including Google, Intel, Huawei, PayPal, IBM, Tencent, and, ironically, Microsoft. The repositories had originally been available through Bing as well. Microsoft eventually removed the repositories from searches, but CoPilot continued to expose them anyway.

https://arstechnica.com/security/2025/12/supply-chains-ai-and-the-cloud-the-biggest-failures-and-one-success-of-2025/




Big Tech basically took Trump’s unpredictable trade war lying down

A month earlier, the nonpartisan policy group the Center for American Progress drew on government labor data to conclude that US employers cut 12,000 manufacturing jobs in August, and payrolls for manufacturing jobs had decreased by 42,000 since April.

As tech companies take tech tariffs on the chin, perhaps out of fears that rattling Trump could impact lucrative government contracts, other US companies have taken Trump to court. Most recently, Costco became one of the biggest corporations to sue Trump to ensure that US businesses get refunded if Trump loses the Supreme Court case, Bloomberg reported. Other recognizable companies like Revlon and Kawasaki have also sued, but small businesses have largely driven opposition to Trump’s tariffs, Bloomberg noted.

Should the Supreme Court side with businesses—analysts predict favorable odds—the US could owe up to $1 trillion in refunds. Dozens of economists told SCOTUS that Trump simply doesn’t understand why having trade deficits with certain countries isn’t a threat to US dominance, pointing out that the US “has been running a persistent surplus in trade in services for decades” precisely because the US “has the dominant technology sector in the world.”

Justices seem skeptical that IEEPA grants Trump the authority, ordinarily reserved for Congress, to impose taxes. However, during oral arguments, Justice Amy Coney Barrett fretted that undoing Trump’s tariffs could be “messy.” Countering that, small businesses have argued that it’s possible for Customs and Border Patrol to set up automatic refunds.

While waiting for the SCOTUS verdict (now expected in January), the CTA ended the year by advising tech companies to keep their receipts in case refunds require requests for tariffs line by line—potentially complicated by tariff rates changing so drastically and so often.

Biggest tariff nightmare may come in 2026

Looking into 2026, tech companies cannot breathe a sigh of relief even if the SCOTUS ruling swings their way, though. Under a separate, legally viable authority, Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on semiconductors and any products containing them, a move the semiconductor industry fears could cost $1 billion.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/12/big-tech-basically-took-trumps-unpredictable-trade-war-lying-down/




Apple hit with $115M fine for “extremely burdensome” App Store privacy policy

Apple was hit with a $115 million fine Monday after Italy’s competition authority alleged the tech giant was abusing its dominant position to harm third-party developers in its App Store.

In a press release, the Italian Competition Authority said that an “App Tracking Transparency” (ATT) privacy policy that Apple introduced in 2021 forced third-party developers to seek consent twice for the same data collection.

Requiring such “double consent” was “extremely burdensome” and “harmful” to some developers—especially the smallest developers, the regulator said. Many developers struggled to earn ad revenue after the policy was introduced, as users increasingly declined to opt into personalized ads.

Meanwhile, Apple may have benefited from the ATT restricting developers’ ad revenues, either “in the form of higher commissions collected from developers through the App Store and, indirectly, in terms of the growth of its own advertising service.” Since ATT was adopted, “revenues from App Store services increased,” the regulator said, as developers paid higher commissions and “likewise, Apple’s advertising division, which is not subject to the same stringent rules, ultimately benefited from increased revenues and higher volumes of intermediated ads.”

Without intervention, Apple would continue requiring third-party developers to provide an additional consent screen, which was “found to be disproportionate to the achievement of the company’s stated data protection objectives,” the press release said.

“Apple should have ensured the same level of privacy protection for users by allowing developers to obtain consent to profiling in a single step,” the regulator concluded.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/12/apple-hit-with-115m-for-extremely-burdensome-app-store-privacy-policy/




Antitrust, multa di 98 milioni di euro ad Apple per abuso di posizione dominante

L’Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato ha irrogato alle società Apple Inc., Apple Distribution International Ltd e Apple Italia S.r.l. una sanzione di 98.635.416,67 euro per abuso di posizione dominante. Apple ha violato l’articolo 102 del TFUE per quanto riguarda il mercato della fornitura agli sviluppatori di piattaforme per la distribuzione online di app per utenti del sistema operativo iOS.  In tale mercato, Apple è in posizione di assoluta dominanza tramite il suo App Store.

Restrittività dell’App Tracking Transparency policy

Al termine di una complessa istruttoria, condotta anche in coordinamento con la Commissione europea, con altre Autorità nazionali della concorrenza e con il Garante per la Protezione dei Dati Personali, l’AGCM ha accertato la restrittività – sotto il profilo concorrenziale – dell’App Tracking Transparency policy, ossia delle regole sulla privacy imposte da Apple, a partire da aprile 2021, nell’ambito del proprio sistema operativo mobile iOS, agli sviluppatori terzi di app distribuite tramite l’App Store.

Richiesta di consenso duplicata

In particolare, gli sviluppatori terzi sono obbligati ad acquisire uno specifico consenso per la raccolta e il collegamento dei dati a fini pubblicitari tramite una schermata imposta da Apple, il c.d. ATT prompt che, tuttavia, non risulta sufficiente a soddisfare i requisiti previsti dalla normativa in materia di privacy, costringendo quindi gli sviluppatori a duplicare la richiesta di consenso per lo stesso fine.

Condizioni dell’ATT policy imposte unilateralmente

L’Antitrust ha accertato che le condizioni dell’ATT policy sono imposte unilateralmente, sono lesive degli interessi dei partner commerciali di Apple e non sono proporzionate per raggiungere l’obiettivo di privacy, così come asserito dalla società. Infatti, dal momento che i dati degli utenti sono un elemento fondamentale su cui si basa la capacità di fare pubblicità online personalizzata, l’inevitabile duplicazione delle richieste di consenso indotta dalle modalità di implementazione dell’ATT policy – che restringe le possibilità di raccolta, collegamento e utilizzo di tali dati – causa un pregiudizio all’attività degli sviluppatori, che basano il proprio modello di business sulla vendita di spazi pubblicitari, e anche a quella degli inserzionisti e delle piattaforme di intermediazione pubblicitaria.

Duplicazione di richieste sproporzionata

Questa duplicazione produce un’assenza di proporzionalità delle regole dell’ATT policy, considerato che Apple avrebbe dovuto garantire lo stesso livello di privacy degli utenti prevedendo la possibilità, per gli sviluppatori, di ottenere il consenso alla profilazione in un’unica soluzione.  

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https://www.key4biz.it/antitrust-multa-di-98-milioni-di-euro-ad-apple-per-abuso-di-posizione-dominante/560178/




Software leaks point to the first Apple Silicon “iMac Pro,” among other devices

Apple doesn’t like to talk about its upcoming products before it’s ready, but sometimes the company’s software does the talking for it. So far this week we’ve had a couple of software-related leaks that have outed products Apple is currently testing—one a pre-release build of iOS 26, and the other some leaked files from a kernel debug kit (both via MacRumors).

Most of the new devices referenced in these leaks are straightforward updates to products that already exist: a new Apple TV, a HomePod mini 2, new AirTags and AirPods, an M4 iPad Air, a 12th-generation iPad to replace the current A16 version, next-generation iPhones (including the 17e, 18, and the rumored foldable model), a new Studio Display model, some new smart home products we’ve already heard about elsewhere, and M5 updates for the MacBook Air, Mac mini, Mac Studio, and the other MacBook Pros. There’s also yet another reference to the lower-cost MacBook that Apple is apparently planning to replace the M1 MacBook Air it still sells via Walmart for $599.

For power users, though, the most interesting revelation might be that Apple is working on a higher-end Apple Silicon iMac powered by an M5 Max chip. The kernel debug kit references an iMac with the internal identifier J833c, based on a platform identified as H17C—and H17C is apparently based on the M5 Max, rather than a lower-end M5 chip. (For those who don’t have Apple’s branding memorized, “Max” is associated with Apple’s second-fastest chips; the M5 Max would be faster than the M5 or M5 Pro, but slower than the rumored M5 Ultra.)

This device could be the long-awaited, occasionally-rumored-but-never-launched replacement to Apple’s 27-inch iMac, which was discontinued in 2022 with no direct replacement. An M5 Max chip would also make this machine the closest thing we’ve seen to a direct replacement for the iMac Pro, a 27-inch iMac variant that was launched in late 2017 but likewise discontinued without an update or replacement.

The current M4 Max chip includes 14 or 16 CPU cores, 32 or 40 GPU cores, and between 36GB and 128GB of unified memory, specs we’d expect an M5 Max to match or beat. And because the Max chips already fit into the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros, it should be no problem to fit one into an all-in-one desktop PC.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/12/leaked-debug-kit-suggests-apple-is-testing-a-new-imac-pro-among-many-other-macs/




UK to “encourage” Apple and Google to put nudity-blocking systems on phones

The push for device-level blocking comes after the UK implemented the Online Safety Act, a law requiring porn platforms and social media firms to verify users’ ages before letting them view adult content. The law can’t fully prevent minors from viewing porn, as many people use VPN services to get around the UK age checks. Government officials may view device-level detection of nudity as a solution to that problem, but such systems would raise concerns about user rights and the accuracy of the nudity detection.

Age-verification battles in multiple countries

Apple and Google both provide optional tools that let parents control what content their children can access. The companies could object to mandates on privacy grounds, as they have in other venues.

When Texas enacted an age-verification law for app stores, Apple and Google said they would comply but warned of risks to user privacy. A lobby group that represents Apple, Google, and other tech firms then sued Texas in an attempt to prevent the law from taking effect, saying it “imposes a broad censorship regime on the entire universe of mobile apps.”

There’s another age-verification battle in Australia, where the government decided to ban social media for users under 16. Companies said they would comply, although Reddit sued Australia on Friday in a bid to overturn the law.

Apple this year also fought a UK demand that it create a backdoor for government security officials to access encrypted data. The Trump administration claimed it convinced the UK to drop its demand, but the UK is reportedly still seeking an Apple backdoor.

In another case, the image-sharing website Imgur blocked access for UK users starting in September while facing an investigation over its age-verification practices.

Apple faced a backlash in 2021 over potential privacy violations when it announced a plan to have iPhones scan photos for child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Apple ultimately dropped the plan.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/12/uk-to-encourage-apple-and-google-to-put-nudity-blocking-systems-on-phones/




Apple loses its appeal of a scathing contempt ruling in iOS payments case

Back in April, District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers delivered a scathing judgment finding that Apple was in “willful violation” of her 2021 injunction intended to open up iOS App Store payments. That contempt of court finding has now been almost entirely upheld by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, a development that Epic Games’ Tim Sweeney tells Ars he hopes will “do a lot of good for developers and start to really change the App Store situation worldwide, I think.”

The ruling, signed by a panel of three appellate court judges, affirmed that Apple’s initial attempts to charge a 27 percent fee to iOS developers using outside payment options “had a prohibitive effect, in violation of the injunction.” Similarly, Apple’s restrictions on how those outside links had to be designed were overly broad; the appeals court suggests that Apple can only ensure that internal and external payment options are presented in a similar fashion.

The appeals court also agreed that Apple acted in “bad faith” by refusing to comply with the injunction, rejecting viable, compliant alternatives in internal discussions. And the appeals court was also not convinced by Apple’s process-focused arguments, saying the district court properly evaluated materials Apple argued were protected by attorney-client privilege.

While the district court barred Apple from charging any fees for payments made outside of its App Store, the appeals court now suggests that Apple should still be able to charge a “reasonable fee” based on its “actual costs to ensure user security and privacy.” It will be up to Apple and the district court to determine what that kind of “reasonable fee” should look like going forward.

Speaking to reporters Thursday night, though, Epic founder and CEO Tim Sweeney said he believes those should be “super super minor fees,” on the order of “tens or hundreds of dollars” every time an iOS app update goes through Apple for review. That should be more than enough to compensate the employees reviewing the apps to make sure outside payment links are not scams and lead to a system of “normal fees for normal businesses that sell normal things to normal customers,” Sweeney said.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/12/epic-celebrates-the-end-of-the-apple-tax-after-appeals-court-win-in-ios-payments-case/




Gli smartphone (e Apple) tornano a crescere

Rubrica settimanale SosTech, frutto della collaborazione tra Key4biz e SosTariffe. Per consultare gli articoli precedenti, clicca qui..

Il quadro del mercato smartphone nel 2025 mostra, a quanto sembra dai dati, un settore che ha ritrovato continuità. La domanda procede con un passo più sicuro rispetto al recente passato e le stime per l’anno, secondo i rilevamenti dell’ultimo report di Counterpoint Research, dimostrano un incremento moderato ma costante delle spedizioni globali. In questo contesto di normalizzazione emerge un cambiamento di quelli che fanno sensazione, perché Apple si avvia a chiudere l’anno in posizione di leadership.

È la prima volta dopo un lungo periodo in cui Samsung sembrava impossibile da detronizzare; la crescita registrata dai modelli lanciati nell’autunno 2025, in particolare dalla nuova serie iPhone 17, ha rappresentato una leva decisiva. Le rilevazioni delle settimane successive al debutto confermano un interesse solido nei principali mercati: gli Stati Uniti mostrano un’accelerazione più marcata rispetto alle generazioni recenti, mentre in Cina e Giappone la curva delle vendite rimane ben orientata.

Il risultato si lega a vari fattor. Il ciclo di aggiornamento degli utenti ha ripreso slancio dopo il rallentamento fisiologico degli ultimi due anni, le nuove configurazioni di memoria e la rimodulazione dei prezzi hanno trovato un loro equilibrio, il lavoro sulla distribuzione ha ridotto alcuni margini di incertezza che avevano frenato la domanda in cicli precedenti. L’introduzione dell’iPhone Air, con un profilo intermedio che amplia l’offerta senza creare sovrapposizioni, ha dato un contributo misurabile, soprattutto nei paesi in cui il pubblico si orienta verso modelli che privilegiano rapporto tra prestazioni e costo.

Nel frattempo il clima industriale offre una cornice relativamente stabile. Le tensioni commerciali che avevano inciso sulla logistica nel biennio precedente si sono attenuate e la filiera risponde con maggiore regolarità alle esigenze di approvvigionamento. Questi elementi, combinati con una domanda più matura e una presenza più solida nei mercati emergenti, costruiscono per Apple un percorso di crescita, e il sorpasso previsto per la fine di 2025 riflette un insieme organico di condizioni favorevoli, ideali da abbinare a uno dei piani mobili che si possono comparare su SOSTariffe.it.

Pieghevoli e anniversari in vista

L’evoluzione della gamma iPhone nel biennio 2025-2026 introduce un’impostazione diversa rispetto ai cicli precedenti. La serie 17 ha inaugurato un’organizzazione più flessibile dell’offerta; il modello Air, inserito in posizione mediana, ha ridotto il divario percepito tra le varianti base e le versioni Pro, fornendo un punto d’ingresso pensato per chi vuole prestazioni solide senza il carico di funzioni specialistiche. La struttura crea spazio per un ampliamento della linea nei mesi successivi. Il 2026 vedrà l’arrivo dell’iPhone 17e, seconda incarnazione della serie “e”, destinata a rafforzare la presenza di Apple nel segmento che tende a crescere più velocemente nei mercati emergenti. Il progetto risponde a un’esigenza precisa, quella di intercettare utenti che aspirano al passaggio all’ecosistema Apple grazie a un investimento più contenuto, pur mantenendo aggiornamenti regolari e un supporto software lungo.

A questa espansione si aggiunge un percorso tecnologico che Apple prepara da tempo e che troverà un punto di svolta con il primo iPhone pieghevole, indicato per la seconda metà del 2026. Lo sviluppo della categoria è stato prudente; la scelta di entrare più tardi rispetto alla concorrenza nasce da valutazioni sulla durabilità delle cerniere, sulla qualità degli schermi flessibili e sull’integrazione tra hardware e software.

Il risultato atteso è un dispositivo orientato alla fascia alta, con un ruolo complementare rispetto alla serie tradizionale. Parallelamente, l’arrivo previsto del primo modello “flip” entro il 2027 completerà la presenza di Apple nell’unico segmento premium che mostra una crescita strutturale.

Nel 2027 cadrà anche il ventesimo anniversario dell’iPhone, occasione che Apple intende utilizzare per rinnovare l’aspetto del dispositivo. Le informazioni disponibili al momento indicano un ridisegno più profondo rispetto agli ultimi cicli, sia nelle linee esterne sia nell’organizzazione interna dei componenti.

Cosa succede in Corea

In questo 2025 Samsung sta affrontando una fase di transizione che unisce risultati solidi e qualche limite strutturale. L’azienda mantiene una posizione forte in molti mercati, sostenuta da una filiera produttiva che reagisce con prontezza alle variazioni dei costi e alle oscillazioni della domanda. La nuova impostazione della serie A, più curata nella definizione delle specifiche e più aggressiva nel rapporto tra prezzo e prestazioni, sta ottenendo una buona risposta in regioni come India, Sud-Est asiatico e Medio Oriente; queste aree mostrano un dinamismo superiore alla media globale e rappresentano una componente stabile della crescita di Samsung. Anche i mercati maturi restano rilevanti, grazie alla fidelizzazione accumulata negli anni e alla continua richiesta di dispositivi premium, soprattutto tra gli utenti che apprezzano i foldable e i modelli della serie S.

Tuttavia, il passo tenuto da Apple nel 2025 crea uno scarto difficile da colmare; i dati sulle spedizioni mostrano una differenza che non dipende da un singolo fattore, ma da una combinazione di scelte commerciali, tempi di rinnovo e variazioni nel comportamento dei consumatori. Samsung conserva un margine competitivo nei segmenti medio-alti e nei dispositivi pieghevoli, dove ha investito con continuità e dove può contare su una riconoscibilità che altri produttori non hanno ancora consolidato; resta però esposta alla pressione crescente dei marchi cinesi nelle fasce di prezzo inferiori, settore che richiede cicli di aggiornamento più rapidi e una flessibilità nella supply chain che non sempre si concilia con la complessità industriale di un gruppo globale come Samsung.

Il 2026 porterà nuovi problemi da risolvere, legati al costo dei componenti, in particolare della memoria. L’aumento previsto influenzerà soprattutto i dispositivi destinati al pubblico più sensibile al prezzo; Samsung di certo dispone degli strumenti per gestire questa fase, ma dovrà bilanciare con attenzione margini, volumi e posizionamento per evitare un rallentamento ulteriore.

La situazione dei competitor

I principali produttori cinesi si trovano in una situazione complessa che alterna prospettive di crescita e spinte in direzione opposta. Xiaomi, vivo, OPPO e Transsion hanno consolidato una presenza di tutto rispetto in numerosi mercati extra-cinesi; l’espansione in India, Sud-Est asiatico, Africa e America Latina ha garantito una base di utenti piuttosto ampia e diversificata. In queste regioni, la combinazione di prezzi contenuti e dotazioni tecniche generose continua a rappresentare un vantaggio competitivo; l’offerta dei produttori cinesi appare spesso meglio calibrata rispetto ai bisogni dei consumatori locali, che favoriscono dispositivi equilibrati e aggiornati con regolarità.

La situazione interna, però, presenta diversi ostacoli. La domanda in Cina procede con lentezza e risponde in modo irregolare alle nuove uscite; inoltre, le tensioni nella supply chain incidono sui costi dei componenti, soprattutto nel comparto della memoria LPDDR4. L’aumento dei prezzi crea pressioni dirette sul segmento di fascia bassa, settore in cui questi marchi costruiscono una parte essenziale dei propri volumi. Così, le previsioni per il 2026 indicano una crescita limitata, stimata intorno all’1,7% per i quattro principali OEM cinesi.

Per rispondere a questa fase, le aziende stanno spostando l’attenzione verso modelli di fascia media e superiore; investono in funzioni avanzate di fotografia computazionale, in piattaforme AI dedicate e in pieghevoli dal prezzo più accessibile. L’obiettivo è costruire un’identità più solida e ridurre la dipendenza dai volumi, puntando su una marginalità meno vulnerabile alle oscillazioni dei costi.

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https://www.key4biz.it/gli-smartphone-e-apple-tornano-a-crescere/557546/




Vision Pro M5 review: It’s time for Apple to make some tough choices

I still think there’s significant room to grow, but the content situation is better than ever. It’s not enough to keep you entertained for hours a day, but it’s enough to make putting on the headset for a bit once a week or so worth it. That wasn’t there a year ago.

The software support situation is in a similar state.

App support is mostly frozen in the year 2024

Many of us have a suite of go-to apps that are foundational to our individual approaches to daily productivity. For me, primarily a macOS user, they are:

  • Firefox
  • Spark
  • Todoist
  • Obsidian
  • Raycast
  • Slack
  • Visual Studio Code
  • Claude
  • 1Password

As you can see, I don’t use most of Apple’s built-in apps—no Safari, no Mail, no Reminders, no Passwords, no Notes… no Spotlight, even. All that may be atypical, but it has never been a problem on macOS, nor has it been on iOS for a few years now.

Impressively, almost all of these are available on visionOS—but only because it can run iPad apps as flat, virtual windows. Firefox, Spark, Todoist, Obsidian, Slack, 1Password, and even Raycast are all available as supported iPad apps, but surprisingly, Claude isn’t, even though there is a Claude app for iPads. (ChatGPT’s iPad app works, though.) VS Code isn’t available, of course, but I wasn’t expecting it to be.

Not a single one of these applications has a true visionOS app. That’s too bad, because I can think of lots of neat things spatial computing versions could do. Imagine browsing your Obsidian graph in augmented reality! Alas, I can only dream.

You can tell the native apps from the iPad ones: The iPad ones have rectangular icons nested within circles, whereas the native apps fill the whole circle. Credit: Samuel Axon

If you’re not such a huge productivity software geek like me and you use Apple’s built-in apps, things look a little better, but surprisingly, there are still a few apps that you would imagine would have really cool spatial computing features—like Apple Maps—that don’t. Maps, too, is just an iPad app.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/11/where-apples-vision-pro-stands-today-post-m5-refresh/




The EU made Apple adopt new Wi-Fi standards, and now Android can support AirDrop

Last year, Apple finally added support for Rich Communications Services (RCS) texting to its platforms, improving consistency, reliability, and security when exchanging green-bubble texts between the competing iPhone and Android ecosystems. Today, Google is announcing another small step forward in interoperability, pointing to a slightly less annoying future for friend groups or households where not everyone owns an iPhone.

Google has updated Android’s Quick Share feature to support Apple’s AirDrop, which allows users of Apple devices to share files directly using a local peer-to-peer Wi-Fi connection. Apple devices with AirDrop enabled and set to “everyone for 10 minutes” mode will show up in the Quick Share device list just like another Android phone would, and Android devices that support this new Quick Share version will also show up in the AirDrop menu.

Google will only support this feature on the Pixel 10 series, at least to start. The company is “looking forward to improving the experience and expanding it to more Android devices,” but it didn’t announce anything about a timeline or any hardware or software requirements. Quick Share also won’t work with AirDrop devices working in the default “contacts only” mode, though Google “[welcomes] the opportunity to work with Apple to enable ‘Contacts Only’ mode in the future.” (Reading between the lines: Google and Apple are not currently working together to enable this, and Google confirmed to The Verge that Apple hadn’t been involved in this at all.)

Like AirDrop, Google notes that files shared via Quick Share are transferred directly between devices, without being sent to either company’s servers first.

Google shared a little more information in a separate post about Quick Share’s security, crediting Android’s use of the memory-safe Rust programming language with making secure file sharing between platforms possible.

“Its compiler enforces strict ownership and borrowing rules at compile time, which guarantees memory safety,” writes Google VP of Platforms Security and Privacy Dave Kleidermacher. “Rust removes entire classes of memory-related bugs. This means our implementation is inherently resilient against attackers attempting to use maliciously crafted data packets to exploit memory errors.”

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/11/the-eu-made-apple-adopt-new-wi-fi-standards-and-now-android-can-support-airdrop/