How ShareBetweenDevices works
A private, peer-to-peer file transfer that runs entirely in your browser. No upload. No server storage. No account.
Step by step
- Open the site on the sending device. Click Send, then drop a file or paste clipboard text. Nothing is uploaded — the file stays on your device.
- A QR code and PIN appear instantly. These identify the session. The other device uses either to connect.
- Open the site on the receiving device and scan the QR code or enter the PIN. The two browsers connect directly.
- The file transfers peer-to-peer. Data flows directly between the two browsers — encrypted, with no server in the middle.
- Done. Close the tab and the session disappears. Nothing is stored anywhere.
The technology: WebRTC
ShareBetweenDevices uses WebRTC data channels — the same browser API used for video calls in Google Meet and Zoom. Once two browsers are connected, data flows directly between them without passing through any server.
The connection is protected by DTLS encryption (Datagram Transport Layer Security), which is built into the WebRTC standard. Every byte transferred is encrypted end-to-end.
Our server only handles the signaling handshake — the brief exchange of connection parameters needed to establish the peer-to-peer link. It never sees the file content.
What about the QR code and PIN?
The QR code encodes a unique URL for the session. The PIN is a short numeric code that resolves to the same session — useful when you can't scan a QR code (e.g. sending from one computer to another). Both expire automatically when the sender leaves the page or after 5 minutes of inactivity.
The same PIN can be used by multiple devices — useful if you want to send the same file to two people at once.
Privacy
Files are never uploaded to or stored on our servers. We do not log file names, sizes, or contents. We do not store session data after the session ends. There are no accounts, no tracking, and no analytics on file transfers. Normally the only data our server handles is the WebRTC signaling — a few hundred bytes of connection metadata. If your two devices cannot reach each other directly, we ask before falling back to a relay, which forwards encrypted bytes it can neither read nor keep.
What devices are supported?
Any device with a modern web browser: Mac, Windows, Linux, iPhone, iPad, Android. Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari are all supported. No app installation needed.