[rchaud]

I'd been using BT for the past decade as a wireless receiver for audio or mouse/KB.

It's only very recently that I discovered that you could use it to transmit files from Device A to Device B. No middleman app or cloud sync service needed! Considering how awful USB file sync is between Mac OS and Android, I don't even break out the cable to transfer files anymore.

The downside is that transmission speeds are very slow, approx. 5 seconds to transfer 1 MB. That's fine for EPUBs and text-heavy PDFs, but not for anything bigger.

[ecliptik]

This was one of the original uses for Bluetooth - replacing PDA cradles, serial/USB cables, and IR for syncing things like contacts, email, calendars, etc.

There were articles in the early aughts about the "failure of bluetooth" [1] since syncing with 802.11 to a network was a better option.

1. https://www.cnet.com/tech/tech-industry/bye-bye-bluetooth/

[abhaynayar]

> aughts

Nice, never knew what to call that decade before.

[vel0city]

Back in high school we'd transfer photos, ringtones, and games between phones through Bluetooth. It worked reasonably well for the time. Photos from those early camera phones weren't very large, wallpapers were less than like 250x150 pixels usually, and lots of games were a meg or less.

[IshKebab]

You can use wi-fi direct for that now with decent speeds. The only issue is it is so hard to discover!

On Android you find a file and then Share -> Nearby. The recipient might need to fiddle in settings to enable it.

[rchaud]

This is not supported Mac OS unfortunately. I did some digging, and it was previously only possible with an AirPort hardware device as a middleman.