SHAREit: Transfer, Share Files

Review by eFreeware

If you have ever stood next to someone trying to hand over a folder of photos or a game install and watched a Bluetooth bar crawl, SHAREit is built for exactly that moment. It is a free Android utility from Smart Media4U Technology that moves files between devices, and it has been doing so for a long time: it arrived in April 2013 and now sits past a billion installs with a 4.3 average from more than 18 million ratings. Those numbers suggest a lot of people have found a use for it.

The pitch is simple enough. You pick what you want to send, the app handles the rest, and the developer promises speeds far beyond Bluetooth and transfers that do not eat into your mobile data. On top of that core job, SHAREit has grown into a small suite: a downloader for videos and photos, a music player, a file manager, a private folder for photos and videos, and a phone clone tool for moving to a new handset. That breadth is what makes it interesting, and also what makes it worth looking at closely before you commit.

What sending a file actually looks like

The central feature is file transfer between devices. The app handles apps, games, photos, movies, videos, music, GIFs, wallpapers, recordings and documents, and the developer does not put a size limit on what you can push across. The claim is that transfers run up to 200 times faster than Bluetooth, with a top speed of 42MB/s, and that files arrive without any loss of quality and without using data. Treat those as the developer's numbers rather than a guarantee.

Cross-platform support matters here too. The app covers phone-to-phone transfers as well as phone-to-PC and PC-to-phone, which is the scenario where a dedicated transfer tool tends to earn its keep. Moving a batch of videos off a phone onto a laptop, or pushing a set of documents back the other way, is the sort of job that is awkward with cables and slow with messaging apps. If you regularly shuffle large media between a handset and a computer, this is the part of SHAREit that will get the most use.

There is also a specific feature for games: a one-click transmission option for large game apps, described with PUBG as the example, that the developer says avoids downloading the game cache file again. For anyone who has waited out a long download on a new device, the appeal is obvious. I would treat it as a convenience for supported titles rather than a universal shortcut, since it appears to center on one game in particular.

Phone clone for the day you switch handsets

The phone clone function is the newest addition and, for a lot of people, the most useful. It moves contacts, apps, videos, photos, music, recordings and documents from one phone to another. Setting up a replacement handset is normally a patchwork of sign-ins, backup restores and manual copying, so a single tool that handles the whole set has clear value.

The developer lists broad device support for this: Samsung, Transsion, Xiaomi, OPPO, vivo, Huawei, OnePlus, iPhone and other smartphones. That range is worth noting, and SHAREit is positioning itself as the option that crosses those lines. If you switch between manufacturers, or you are helping a family member move off an older phone, this is the feature to look at first.

The caveat is that a migration is a one-time job. You will use phone clone on the day you set up a new device, which means the rest of the app has to justify its place on your phone. That is where the downloader, player and file manager come in.

Downloader, player and the rest of the toolbox

SHAREit includes a downloader that saves videos and photos, with WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram named as sources. If you frequently want to keep a clip rather than bookmark it, having that in the same app as your file transfers saves a step. The app also offers a library of high-definition videos to watch inside it, with fresh content appearing each time you open the app.

There is a music player as well, described as an audio player for your own songs, and a file manager for handling the largest files on your device, moving them or deleting them. Both are ordinary utilities rather than headline features, but they round out the package. A PDF conversion tool handles conversions between PDFs and images, which is handy when you need a document as a picture or a scan as a PDF.

The Safebox is the privacy-minded piece: it hides and encrypts photos and videos you would rather keep out of the main gallery. That is a familiar idea in file managers, and it fits naturally alongside the transfer features, since the same files you are moving around are the ones you might want tucked away.

What it costs you in attention

SHAREit is free to download, and it carries ads and offers in-app purchases. That is the trade you are making. The app is free to use, and its scale suggests plenty of people accept the arrangement, but a utility you open for a two-minute transfer is not the same experience as a paid tool with nothing else going on.

The other thing to weigh is scope. SHAREit does not present itself as a single-purpose transfer tool; it is a transfer app, a downloader, a video destination, a music player, a file manager and a phone migration assistant in one package. That is convenient if you want one app for all of it, and less so if you only ever need the transfer part. The size of the install base and the age of the app tell you it has been refined over many years, but they also tell you it is aiming at a very broad audience.

For the transfers themselves, the practical requirement is that both devices are involved. The developer's promise of no data consumption and no quality loss applies to that kind of transfer.

Who tends to get the most from it

The clearest fit is someone who moves large files between devices regularly and does not want to depend on a cloud service or a cable. Photographers passing batches of images to a laptop, people carrying a media library between phones, and anyone who has ever tried to send a long video through a messaging app will recognize the problem this solves.

The second fit is the person changing phones. If you are moving from one brand to another, or setting up a device for someone who is not comfortable with the usual backup-and-restore routine, the clone feature is the reason to have the app installed at all. The listed brand support covers most of what you will encounter in that situation.

Beyond those two, SHAREit works as a general-purpose toolbox: something to watch videos in, play local music, tidy up storage and keep private photos out of sight. If you like the idea of one app covering all of that, the breadth is a feature. If you prefer lean tools that do one job, the same breadth will feel like more than you asked for, and the ads and purchases are part of that calculation.

The case for installing it

SHAREit has earned its install count by solving a real and recurring annoyance: getting a big file from one device to another without waiting, without cables and without a cloud account in the middle. The transfer engine is the core, and the surrounding features — phone clone, downloader, player, file manager, Safebox, PDF conversion — mean the app rarely sits idle once it is on your phone.

It is free, ad-supported and offers in-app purchases, so the experience comes with the usual strings attached. That is the main reason to think before installing rather than after. If ads and purchase prompts bother you more than a slow file transfer does, this is not the tool for you.

Install it if you regularly move large files between phones or between a phone and a computer, or if you have a phone migration coming up and want the process handled in one pass.