One screen shows an animated QR code. The other device's camera reads it. No Wi-Fi, no Bluetooth, no cable, no account, no server — just light.
iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Requires iOS 16 or macOS 13 and later. One purchase covers all three.
That's the whole protocol. Nothing is paired, nothing is discovered, and nothing has to be on the same network — because there is no network.
Choose text or a file on the sending device. LightDrop turns it into a stream of QR frames and starts playing them on screen.
Open Scan on the receiving device and aim it at the sending screen. Fragments land continuously and a progress grid fills in as they arrive.
Fountain coding means order doesn't matter and a missed frame never restarts the transfer. Keep the camera pointed and it completes on its own.
An isolated machine, a locked-down office laptop, a hotel network you'd rather not trust, or two ecosystems that refuse to talk to each other.
Standard QR codes carry text, which wastes most of a frame. Turbo writes raw binary straight into the code — a full 8 bits per byte — and pushes up to 2900 bytes per frame at up to 30 frames per second. Ten to thirty times the throughput, LightDrop to LightDrop.
Lock the payload with a password before it ever reaches the screen. A bystander's camera can record every frame and still get nothing. Standard AES-GCM, entirely on device.
Frames can arrive in any order, and a dropped one costs a moment rather than the whole transfer. The sender simply keeps broadcasting until the receiver has enough.
Photos are compressed automatically before sending, previewed inline the moment they arrive, and saved to your photo library in one tap. Detected by content, not by file extension.
Close, standard, and far presets trade frame size against frame rate, and the frame rate slider is live while the code is playing. A dim screen or a shaky hand is a setting away from working.
The same app on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Pro unlocks on every device signed in to your Apple Account, from a single transaction, with Family Sharing on the lifetime option.
There is no networking code in the app at all. It behaves identically in airplane mode, in a shielded room, or on a machine that has never been online.
Any two LightDrop devices can send to each other — and a device with a screen but no camera can still be the sender.
Sends and receives. iOS 16 and later.
Coming soonSends and receives. A large, bright screen makes it a good sender. iPadOS 16 and later.
Coming soonSends and receives. Usually the sender, since the phone is the thing with the good camera. macOS 13 and later.
Coming soonA desktop build is in development. It is not available for download yet — when it is ready it will be published here.
In developmentLightDrop has no server, no account, and no analytics. That isn't a policy we promise to keep — it's the absence of the code that would make it possible.
Sending and receiving in standard mode is free, with no size cap, no time limit, and no watermark. Pro adds turbo transfer and password encryption.
During early access, Pro is free for everyone. Turbo transfer and password encryption are unlocked for every user until 31 December 2026, with nothing to buy and nothing to redeem.
Pay once. Yours forever, on iPhone, iPad, and Mac, with Family Sharing for everyone in your group.
7 days free, then billed monthly through your Apple Account. Cancel anytime.
Prices are shown in USD and may vary by region. The monthly plan starts with a 7-day free trial and then renews automatically at the monthly price unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the trial ends; manage or cancel it any time in your Apple Account settings. The Lifetime plan is a one-time purchase with no renewal.
