LocalSend: file sharing that skips the cloud entirely
No account, no cloud, no cable. Just two devices on the same WiFi network.
Send a file across the room without touching a cloud server in between. Free, open source, cross-platform.
Getting a screenshot off a phone and onto a laptop usually means an app in between: AirDrop if both are Apple, a message to yourself, or an upload to a cloud drive you then have to remember to delete. LocalSend skips all three. It sends the file straight across the WiFi network you are already on, no account, no cloud, no cable.
What it actually does
LocalSend is a free, open-source app for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS. Install it on two devices on the same WiFi network and they find each other automatically, no pairing code, no login. Pick a file, pick the device, send. The transfer runs over HTTPS, so it is encrypted in transit, and you can turn on a PIN if you want a device to confirm before it accepts anything.
- Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, and a web client, so it does not care what either device is running.
- No account, no cloud upload, no internet connection required. The transfer never leaves the local network.
- Apache 2.0 licensed, so the code is there to read if you want to know exactly what it does with the file.
Why we use it
We hand files between devices constantly mid-build: a screenshot from a phone for a bug report, a build artifact from one laptop to another during a pairing session, a client asset that landed on someone's tablet. Routing that through a chat app or a shared drive means the file sits on a third party's server for however long it takes someone to delete it. Minor for a screenshot, not something we want for client design files or anything under NDA. LocalSend gets it from one device to the other and nowhere else.
The honest tradeoff
Both devices need to be on the same network. Different WiFi networks, or one device on mobile data, and LocalSend has nothing to discover. A phone hotspot works around it in a pinch, connect both devices to that instead of the office WiFi, but it is not a remote file-transfer tool, and we still reach for a cloud drive when a file needs to go to someone outside the room.
Next step: install LocalSend on two devices on the same network and send yourself a file. It is on the tools page alongside the rest of what we reach for. If your team wants a second look at how client files move between devices on a build, write to us at hello@gattyworks.com.