OnePlus, Black Shark, Realme, and Meizu have announced joining the Peer-to-Peer Transmission Alliance, a group started by Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo that's pushing a single unified file transfer solution (which Android currently lacks) in the vein of Apple's AirDrop for the Chinese smartphone market.

The alliance was announced back in August of last year, and it didn't take long for the first phones to pick up compatibility. At the time, Xiaomi welcomed "more phone brands to join us," and it looks like that didn't take long. OnePlus, Black Shark, Realme, and Meizu all took to Weibo yesterday in what is clearly a coordinated announcement regarding their membership in the alliance, all publishing nearly identical posts praising the standard for features like multiple file format support and a 400 million user reach.

According to XDA Developers, the file-sharing protocol used by the alliance supports up to 20MBps — pretty decent performance — and some Black Shark devices may already support the standard ahead of the company's announcement to join the alliance.

Meanwhile, outside the alliance, file sharing on Android still lacks an easy, ubiquitous solution. Google retired Android Beam as of Android 10/Q, and we're all still waiting on its successor, Nearby Sharing, to pick up where it left off. However, with Nearby Sharing being a part of Play Services, plenty of phones intended for the Chinese market will never see the feature, so it's a good thing Chinese manufacturers are banding together to set their own universal standards.

Source: Weibo: (1), (2), (3), (4)

Via: XDA Developers