Guide · OtterDrop

Send a large video from your phone without compressing it

You filmed two minutes of 4K video and now you want it on your laptop, or on a friend's phone. WhatsApp turns it into a blurry 16 MB clip. Email refuses it. The cloud drive wants twenty minutes and a login. There's a simpler way if the devices are in the same room.

Why messaging apps ruin videos

Chat apps are built to deliver quickly over mobile data, so they recompress every video to a fraction of its size before sending. A 500 MB clip becomes 15 to 30 MB, and the difference is visible: blocky motion, soft detail, washed-out colour. Some apps offer a "document" or "HD" option that helps, but it's still limited, and the file still travels through their servers.

Move the original instead

OtterDrop sends the file exactly as it is, directly from one device to the other over your Wi-Fi. Nothing is recompressed because nothing is processed; the bytes just go across. There's no size limit on my side, and because the file never goes to a server there's no upload quota either.

Steps

1. Put both devices on the same Wi-Fi. If you're out and about, turn on the hotspot on one phone and connect the other device to it.
2. Open drop.ottercraft.dev on both. They'll see each other within a couple of seconds. The QR code on one screen is the quickest way to open the page on the other.
3. On the phone with the video, tap the drop area and pick the video from your gallery. On iPhone, choose it from Photo Library; the original file is used, not a preview.
4. On the receiving device, tap the video in the list. A progress bar shows the transfer. A 1 GB file takes a minute or two on a normal home network.
5. Keep the page open on the sending phone until it finishes. The file is coming from that phone, not from a server.

Tips

• Several videos at once: share them all, then use Download all on the other side to get them as one zip.
• Speed depends on your Wi-Fi, not your internet plan. If it's slow, move closer to the router or use a hotspot with the devices side by side.
• iPhone HEVC videos arrive as HEVC. Windows can play them with the free HEVC extension, or VLC. OtterDrop doesn't convert anything.
• On a locked phone the browser may pause. Keep the screen on during a long transfer.

Related

• Share files between your phone and computer
• An AirDrop alternative that works between iPhone, Android and Windows