Send and Receive Files via Bluetooth on a Samsung Galaxy S8
Edited by Jay, Maria Quinney
Bluetooth is a great way to send and receive information between mobile devices at close range. Because Bluetooth is a type of wireless technology, the need for WiFi or a Data connection is not necessary. By using short-wavelength radio waves, mobile or fixed devices can transmit data back and forth using Personal Area Networks (PANs). Bluetooth works with a variety of devices such as; speakers, headphones, modems, watches, tablets/phones, USB dongles and more.
For this tutorial, we'll focus on sending and receiving files between two Android phones; A Samsung Galaxy S8 and a Google Pixel. If you happen to have limited data on either your home internet or mobile data plan, Bluetooth works well as an alternative for sending and receiving files. The only drawback is that the devices need to be relatively close to each other.
Enable Bluetooth on Samsung Galaxy S8
- 1On the home screen, swipe up to access the app drawer.
Advertisement - 2From inside your app drawer, tap the "Settings" icon.
Advertisement - 3On the Settings screen, tap "Connections".
- 4From the Connections screen, tap "Bluetooth".
- 5On the Bluetooth screen, toggle the switch in the top right corner, to turn it on.
Enable Bluetooth on Google Pixel
- 1From the home screen, tap or swipe up from the little triangle to access your app drawer.
Advertisement - 2Once inside the app drawer, locate and tap "Settings".
- 3From the main Settings screen, tap "Connected devices".
- 4On the Connected devices screen, tap "Bluetooth.
- 5Once on the Bluetooth screen, enable it by toggling the switch in the upper right corner.
Pairing a Galaxy S8 with a Google Pixel
Now that both devices have Bluetooth enabled, it's time to pair them. Make sure both phones are within close range of one another.
- 1On the Galaxy S8's Bluetooth screen you'll see the other device (Google Pixel in our case) in the list of available devices. Tap the available device to begin pairing them.If you don't see the other phone in the available list, tap scan in the top right corner.
Transfer Files Between Devices with Bluetooth
With both devices now paired, we can transfer files between the two.
- 1On the Galaxy S8, navigate to the location of the file you want to send.
- 2Tap the file to select it, then tap "SHARE". When the sharing options appear, tap "Bluetooth".
- 3On the "SELECT DEVICE" screen, tap on your other phone or tablet.
- 4On your other device (Google Pixel in our case), you'll see a notification for an incoming file from the S8. Tap "ACCEPT" to being the transfer.
- 5Once the file has been sent you'll see another notification stating that the transfer was successful. On the Pixel's Bluetooth screen, another message will appear showing the directory the file was saved to.
- 6When receiving something on Galaxy S8, a file transfer pop-up box will appear. Tap "ACCEPT" to initiate the transfer.
- 7Once the transfer is complete, you'll see a "File received" notification. Tap it for more information.
- 8Here on the "INBOUND TRANSFERS" screen you'll see the file you just received. If you wish to clean out the inbound transfers, tap "CLEAR" in the upper right corner, then tap "CLEAR" once more in the pop-up box.Don't worry, this doesn't delete the file, it merely clears it from the inbound list.
If you have problems with any of the steps in this article, please ask a question for more help, or post in the comments section below.
