Originally published at: AppBITS: Use Blip to Send Large Files Directly - TidBITS
Do you regularly need to send large files to someone else? Blip makes it easy to send files of any size to any Mac, iPhone, iPad, or Android user directly over your network or the Internet.
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Ohmigod, an instant install. Finally someone has done this right for one-off transfers. I still have WeTransfer Pro for enduring links and password-protection but this… between my devices and my family circle, it’s going to be very useful.
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Does receiving device need to have Blip installed? Don’t see that info in their FAQ.
Yes, both sides have to have Blip installed.
Without the need for any registration and multiplatform (as web based), there’s https://wormhole.app/
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Interesting! It seems to be using a relay for the communication rather than going peer-to-peer as such, but that’s OK if the bandwidth between the ends is fully utilised.
I have often thought that in today’s Internet, it is strange that transferring big files is still such a seemingly intractable problem.
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You aren’t the first: https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/file_transfer.png
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That Adam uses Blip reduces my anxiety somewhat, but I’m very leery of downloads from developer sites for apps not showing in Apple’s App Store. From my desktop in Sonoma, I did not see Blip (THIS product named Blip, anyway) listed on the App Store. Is there a way to determine independently that the developers are not offering something free that comes with baggage affecting the security of my computer? (I’m a very naive experimenter, usually stick with Apple-approved or Apple-vetted products, and have had an ugly experience years and years ago with some product I downloaded that was supposed to help me clean my computer and defragment and all that other stuff. Was a nightmare for me (maybe a techie could have cleaned the clearer more easily, but I’m no techie, more of a techlessie). I think I wound up wiping the drive and reinstalling the system and apps and copied data back over from a manually-maintained backup (i.e., one I dragged files over to manually to back up, nothing automatic about it, and only data files, no apps or OS stuff). So tend to balk at willy-nilly downloading nifty apps from a website unless I know someone I respect has vetted the developers and the product in the malware context.) In short, do we know Blip is good in spirit?
I don’t think there’s any way to know that any app is “good in spirit” regardless of whether it comes from the Mac App Store or an independent developer’s website. There are plenty of trash apps that meet enough of Apple’s rules (or slip through) to appear on the Mac App Store, and the vast majority of independent developers are good people.
There are certain categories of apps that I’m very leery of, some of which you note. Disk recovery, disk defragmentation, cleaning utilities, video players and encoders, iPhone data extractors, and PDF utilities seem to pop up from all sorts of completely unknown companies in other countries. I don’t know that they’re problematic, but they set off my warning bells. I almost suspect there is some common code among them because they seem too similar.
I can’t say with assurance that Blip is entirely fine, but nothing about it sets off my warning bells.
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FWIW The developers are very responsive and open on their Discord channel.
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Sounds promising. Deserves a place in the data transfer toolbox.
Since I read about BLIP, I installed it on my Android phone, Android tablet and Macbook Air. Although I was using Google Photos to transfer pictures between machines, it was inconvenient, as it would zip multiple pics before transfer. BLIP has been great, it sends each pic as a separate file, drops it into my Mac download folder (which is what I specified), no unzipping required. It’s very convenient.
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As an early adopter, I was invited to do a video chat with the developer. We spent 45 minutes talking about the app and possible directions they might go with it. I left feeling positive about their team and work, and the app has been great for my purposes.
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What about it being entirely free? That alone makes me wonder, is the developer truly altruistic or is the developer selling (parts of) your data? If it was shareware and you could use it for free for a trial period I would be less skeptical, but now I would like to know more about the developer. The fact that the App Store info shows Contact info may be collected and that there are just 2 ratings and no reviews for an app that is > 7 month old does raise some concerns.
Having said that, it does seem to be a really great utility. A cross platform AirDrop, who would not like to have that? I want it to be safe, but I would like that confirmed from multiple independent resources.
Lots of apps are free or start there, and the FAQ talks about them trying to keep it free for personal use while charging for corporate use. Finding a business model for a small app is tricky, and there’s nothing unusual about the approach they’ve outlined, so no, it doesn’t set off warning bells.
I haven’t tried the iPhone version yet since iCloud Photos and AirDrop solve all my transfer needs there, but its App Store listing seems entirely legitimate to me. It has 4.8 of 5 stars from 55 ratings, and while that’s not huge, the primary use case is on the Mac, so I’m not surprised. There are only four reviews, but the only negative one is someone who thought the Windows version was available. The other 1-star reviewer confused 1 and 5 stars, and the developer has responded to all four with individual responses. So, again, absolutely no warning bells.
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Thanks Adam, this info is very reassuring. I guess I only see what’s in the Netherlands App Store which, naturally, is a lot more limited because we’re a much smaller country than the US. 
Curious if I can send a lot of not so huge files… i.e. ripped audio files from one iPhone to another using Blip??
I don’t see why not. Since it’s free, give it a try.
Tiny is not a problem, Paul.
I don’t see it mentioned in the App Store page, nor on the Blip web site, so thought I’d ask here: Is there a “blind receive” mode? I.e., one where you could transfer a file without the destination’s acknowledgement before the transfer?