Apple plans to make changes to AirDrop to prevent spam

AirDrop is Apple’s own technology which is widely used by Big Apple users to easily transfer images and files. This technology is only available for Apple devices and uses Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. The arrival of iOS 16.1.1 a few days ago raised an alert after the integration of a new option within AirDrop for Chinese users in which a new sharing option was added: “For everyone for 10 minutes”.

These AirDrop improvements are aimed to avoid spam emails that usually appear in crowded places and it is likely to reach the whole world in the coming months.

AirDrop will improve to avoid the usual spam

If you have an iPhone or iPad, surely you have had AirDrop enabled for all users and they wanted to send you funny or bad taste images at crowded places like concerts, shopping malls or planes. This is just one more example how spam can also arrive via this type of technology.

This happens because AirDrop has a three-way setting: enable AirDrop for all users (no controls), only for your contacts, or disable receiving. Until now, when we enabled AirDrop for all users, it was enabled permanently thus allowing the possibility of receiving files from any device.

Following anti-government information being sent to China, Apple updated the AirDrop options in iOS 16.1.1 by changing the receive option for all users to reception for all users for 10 minutes. After this time has elapsed, the setting will automatically change to “Contacts Only”.

Thanks to Apple’s contact with analyst Mark Gurman, we know that Apple is planning big changes for AirDrop with the aim of avoiding this spam from which users have suffered for more than 10 years, since the launch of the technology, under certain conditions.