- Getting Started
- Touring Other Cool iPhone Apps
- Listening to Music with the Music App
- Finding Your Way with Maps
- Managing Your Health Information with the Health App
- Using Bluetooth to Connect to Other Devices
- Connecting Your iPhone to Other iPhones, iPod touches, or iPads
- Working with the Wallet App and Apple Pay
- Working Seamlessly Across Your Devices
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Connecting Your iPhone to Other iPhones, iPod touches, or iPads
The iPhone (and other devices that run the iOS software, including iPod touches and iPads) supports peer-to-peer connectivity, which is the technical way of saying that these devices can communicate with one another directly via a Wi-Fi network or Bluetooth. This capability is used in a number of apps, especially multiplayer gaming, for information sharing, and for other collaborative purposes.
If the app you want to use communicates over a Wi-Fi network, such as a network you use to access the Internet, all the devices with which you want to communicate must be on that same network. If the application uses Bluetooth, you must enable Bluetooth on each device and pair them (as described in the previous task) so they can communicate with one another.
The specific steps you use to connect to other iOS devices using a collaborative app depend on the specific app you are using. The general steps are typically as follows:
Ensure the devices can communicate with each other. If the app uses Wi-Fi, each device must be on the same Wi-Fi network. If the app uses Bluetooth, the devices must be paired.
Each person opens the app on his device.
Use the app’s controls to select the devices with which you’ll be collaborating. Usually, this involves a confirmation process in which one person selects another person’s device and that person confirms that the connection should be allowed.
Use the app’s features to collaborate. For example, if the app is a game, each person can interact with the group members. Or, you can directly collaborate on a document with all parties providing input into the document.
Using AirDrop to Share Content with Other iPhones, iPod touches, iPads, or a Mac
You can use the AirDrop feature to share content directly with people using a Mac running OS X Yosemite or later, or using a device running iOS 7 or later. For example, if you capture a great photo on your iPhone, you can use AirDrop to instantly share that photo with iOS device and Mac users near you.
AirDrop can use Wi-Fi or Bluetooth to share, but the nice thing about AirDrop is that it manages the details for you. You simply open the Share menu—which is available in most apps—tap AirDrop, and tap the people with whom you want to share.
When you activate AirDrop, you can select Everyone, which means you see anyone who has a Mac running OS X Yosemite or later, or an iOS device running version iOS 7 or newer and is on the same Wi-Fi network as you (or has a paired Bluetooth device); those people can see you, too. (You can decline any request to share with you via AirDrop so even if you choose Everyone, you can still decide which content is moved onto your iPhone.) Or, you can select Contacts Only, which means only people who are in your Contacts app are able to use AirDrop to communicate with you. In most cases, you should choose the Contacts Only option so you have more control over who uses AirDrop with you.
Enabling AirDrop
To use AirDrop, you must enable it on your iPhone.
Open the General screen of the Settings app.
Tap AirDrop.
Tap Receiving Off if you don’t want to receive any content via AirDrop (you can still share your content with others), tap Contacts Only to allow only people in your Contacts app to be able to request to share content with you, or Everyone to allow anyone using a device running iOS 7 or later or a Mac running OS X Yosemite or later in your area to request to share content with you.
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Using AirDrop to Share Your Content
To use AirDrop to share your content, do the following:
Open the content you want to share. This example shows sharing a photo using the Photos app (this app is covered in detail in Chapter 14, “Viewing and Editing Photos and Video with the Photos App”). The steps to share content from any other app are quite similar.
Tap the Share icon.
If the app you selected in step 1 supports it, you can swipe to preview other content and select it by tapping it. Each item you select is available for sharing. When marked with the check mark, the content will be shared.
Tap AirDrop (not shown on the figure) or just wait a couple of seconds. The AirDrop icon is replaced with icons for each person in your area who has AirDrop enabled that you have permission to access (such as being in her Contacts app if she is using the Contacts Only option).
Swipe to the left or right to browse all the people with whom you can share.
Tap the people with whom you want to share the content. A sharing request is sent to those people’s devices. Under their icons, the Waiting status is displayed. When a recipient accepts your content, the status changes to Sent. If a recipient rejects your content, the status changes to Declined.
If the app supports it, browse and select more content to share by tapping items that aren’t selected; tap items currently selected if you don’t want to send them again.
Tap the people with whom you want to share the content.
When you’re done sharing, tap Done.
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Using AirDrop to Work with Content Shared with You
When someone wants to share content with you, you receive an AirDrop sharing request. (If you use AirDrop to share content among your own devices such as sending a photo from your iPhone to a Mac, it is accepted automatically.) Respond to sharing requests by doing the following:
Make sure you know the person attempting to share with you.
Make sure the content being shared with you is something you want. In this case, a photo is being shared.
To accept the content on your iPhone, tap Accept. To reject it, tap Decline.
Use the associated app to work with the shared content. For example, the Photos app provides tools to edit and share photos that are shared with you. In some cases, such as saving a contact shared with you, you need to tap Save to save the content on your iPhone or Cancel to not save it. (Other apps provide different controls depending on the type of content and the app it opens in.)
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