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Computer to phone
Send a file from your computer to your phone, no cable needed
Updated 2026-08-08 · 6 min read
Short answer
Open sendxa.app on the computer, drop the file on the page, and it shows an 8-character code. On the phone, open the same address in Safari or Chrome, type the code in and tap Receive. Or open the link the computer copied for you, or scan the QR code. The file transfers directly to the phone, where it lands in the Files app on iPhone or the Downloads folder on Android. No cable, no app and no account.
The file is on the laptop. You need it on the phone, and you need it in the next two minutes because you are leaving. Emailing it to yourself fails on size. The cable is at home. The cloud app wants you to sign in again on the phone, which means finding a password.
There is a faster route, and it costs one page open on each device.
How to do it
On the computer, open sendxa.app and drag the file onto the page.
The page shows an 8-character code, plus a QR code and a Copy link button.
On the phone, open the same address in whatever browser is already there.
Type the 8-character code. If the phone is yours, it is quicker to send yourself the link by email, by message or with the Share button, then just tap it.
The file list appears on the phone. Tap Download, and keep the computer's page open until it finishes.
One page, open on both devices. The sender picks the files and gets an 8-character code; the receiver types that code and hits Receive. With the link there is nothing to type at all.
That is it. Nothing was installed on the phone, nothing was uploaded to a cloud and back down, and no account was created on either end.
Where the file ends up on the phone
| Phone | Where it lands | Getting it into Photos |
|---|
| iPhone or iPad (Safari) | Files app, in Downloads, on the iCloud Drive or On My iPhone location depending on your setting | Open it in Files, tap Share, then Save Image or Save Video |
| Android (Chrome) | The Downloads folder, and it appears in the notification shade as it arrives | Most gallery apps pick up media in Downloads automatically; if not, move it to Pictures or Movies |
Put both on the same Wi-Fi first
The two browsers attempt a direct connection to each other before falling back to relaying through a server, and on the same Wi-Fi that direct route is what you want, because the data never leaves your network. Measured on a 6 MB file, direct took 3.6 seconds where the relayed route took 42.2.
Both bars are drawn to the times actually measured on this service. The direct route is nearly twelve times faster, and the gap widens as files get bigger.
This matters more when sending to a phone than in any other direction, because the alternative is mobile data. A 2 GB video over a metered connection is a real cost, and the direct-on-Wi-Fi route avoids it completely.
What a phone can and cannot do
Phones are the constrained end of this. Worth knowing before you start on something large:
- The phone needs free storage for the whole file. Check before sending 8 GB to a phone that has 3 GB left.
- Mobile browsers cannot write to disk progressively the way Chrome on a computer can, so very large files fall back to a plain browser download. It still arrives, you just lose the in-page progress bar and the pause button.
- Keep the phone's screen on during a large transfer. A locked phone can suspend the browser tab, and while the transfer resumes on its own afterwards, it will not be making progress while the screen is off.
- If the phone is going to receive a huge file, plug it in. Sustained downloads over Wi-Fi drain a battery quickly.
A locked phone gets its browser tab frozen by the system, and the transfer sits still until you wake the device. Nothing breaks, it simply waits — so before a long transfer, push the auto-lock timer out.
Against the alternatives
| Method | Works PC to iPhone | Works macOS to Android | Install needed |
|---|
| AirDrop | No | No | No |
| Quick Share / Nearby Share | Windows only, with the app | Only with the app | Yes |
| Cable | Yes, with the iTunes or Finder dance | Usually, with MTP | Sometimes |
| Email to yourself | Under 25 MB | Under 25 MB | No |
| Cloud drive app | Yes, after signing in | Yes, after signing in | Yes |
| Browser transfer | Yes | Yes | No |
If you are inside one ecosystem, say macOS to iPhone or a Windows PC with Quick Share to an Android, the native tool is fewer taps. Use it. The browser route exists for everything else, which in practice is most of the combinations people actually have on their desk.
Questions people actually ask
How do I send a file from a Windows PC to an iPhone without iTunes?
Open sendxa.app on the PC, drop the file, and enter the code in Safari on the iPhone. The file arrives in the Files app under Downloads. Nothing is installed on either device.
Do I need to install an app on the phone?
No. It runs in the browser that is already on the phone: Safari on iPhone, Chrome on Android. There is nothing in the App Store or Play Store to find.
Will this use my mobile data?
Only if the phone is on mobile data. Put both devices on the same Wi-Fi and the two browsers connect directly, so nothing goes over the mobile network or through our server.
How do I get a transferred video into the Photos app on an iPhone?
After it downloads, open the Files app, find it in Downloads, tap the Share button and choose Save Video. It then appears in Photos like anything else.
What is the largest file I can send to a phone?
The service allows 32.0 GB per file, but the practical limit is the phone's free storage. Check that first.
Does the photo or video lose quality?
No. The file arrives byte for byte identical to the one you sent. Nothing is re-encoded, resized or compressed on the way. That is exactly what most chat apps do to it.
Try it with the file you are stuck on right now
Open the page on both devices, pick the file, read out the 8-character code. Nothing to install, no account, and the file never rests on our server.
Send a file now →