notegirl

Notegirl, compared with everything else

Every way of moving a photo between two devices is good at something. This is the chart I wish had existed when I started, with the honest column included: the cases where something else is the better choice.

The chart

Way	Any two devices	Nothing to install	No account	Different networks	Full quality	Notes and links	Nothing kept
Notegirl	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
AirDrop	Apple only	Yes	Yes	Same room	Yes	Links, yes	Yes
Quick Share	Android, Windows	App on Windows	Optional on Windows	Same room	Yes	Links, yes	Yes
Snapdrop	Yes	Yes	Yes	Same Wi-Fi	Yes	Short messages	Yes
PairDrop	Yes	Yes	Yes	After pairing	Yes	Short messages	Pairings stay
LocalSend	Yes	App everywhere	Yes	Same Wi-Fi	Yes	Yes	Yes
Phone Link	Phone to Windows	App on phone	Microsoft account	Same room	Yes	Yes	Synced
Email to yourself	Yes	Yes	Your email	Yes	Often shrunk	Yes	Inbox and Sent
Messaging apps	Yes	App, both sides	Both sides	Yes	Compressed	Yes	In the chat forever
Cloud link	Yes	Browser works	The sender's	Yes	Yes	Files only	Until you clean up
A cable	If it fits	Drivers, sometimes	Yes	Offline, even	Yes	No	Yes

What the chart is really saying

Every row except the first has a condition attached: the right brand, the same network, an app on both sides, an account, or a cable in your bag. Each of those conditions is fine when it happens to be met. The reason Notegirl exists is the other times: an iPhone and a Windows PC, an Android and a Mac, your phone and a hotel's computer, two strangers' phones, a work laptop you can't install anything on. Three words meet none of the conditions, because there are none.

The last column matters more than it looks. Email, chat and cloud links all work by making a copy somewhere else and leaving it there. Notegirl moves the thing and keeps nothing, so there is nothing to clean up and nothing to leak.

The honest part: when something else is better

Both devices are Apple and in the same room. AirDrop. It is built into the share button and it is faster to reach than any web page.

Both are Android, or Android and Windows, at home. Quick Share, once it is set up. The newest Pixels and Galaxies can even reach an iPhone with it now.

You want it to persist. A photo that fifty people need, or a file you want on every device forever, belongs in a cloud folder. Notegirl is a hand-off, not a filing cabinet.

Thousands of photos. A cable and the Photos import. Notegirl will move a few hundred megabytes happily; a whole camera roll is a cable job.

A machine with no web browser. Nothing here helps.

Where only three words will do

Someone else's computer. A phone and a laptop from different brands. Two phones whose owners met ten minutes ago. A link that needs to be on the other screen right now. A code you don't want sitting in a chat history. A file from a locked-down work laptop to your own phone. Every one of these is a one-minute job with the page you are already looking at.

Open Notegirl

Questions

Is Notegirl just another Snapdrop?
No. Snapdrop finds devices on the same Wi-Fi, which hotel and office networks often prevent. Notegirl connects two tabs anywhere with three words, and treats notes and links as first-class, not an afterthought.

Is it free?
Yes. It is supported by a single small ad at the bottom of the page.

Why not just use AirDrop?
Do, when both devices are Apple and in the same room. Notegirl is for the other cases.