Do my files pass through or get saved on any server?

No. Nearsend is strictly a peer-to-peer (P2P) platform. The signaling server is only used to exchange temporary session tokens and WebRTC handshake coordinates. Once connected, your files, text, and clipboard stream directly between your devices via WebRTC DataChannels in 64KB encrypted chunks.

How does the Voice Pairing work securely?

When you generate a voice pairing phrase, the host device creates an ephemeral 3-minute token. When spoken on the guest device, browser speech recognition converts the acoustic phrase into the token. The server validates the match and immediately triggers an explicit confirmation prompt on the host device before any connection is allowed.

Does Nearsend work across different operating systems?

Yes! Nearsend works seamlessly across any modern web browser — Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, iPadOS, and ChromeOS. No native apps or software installations are required.

Is there a file size limit on Nearsend?

Because transfers stream directly via WebRTC without hitting a central server memory limit, you can send files ranging from kilobytes to multi-gigabyte videos. Nearsend incorporates backpressure flow control to ensure smooth transmission without exhausting device RAM.

Bluetooth vs Wi-Fi vs WebRTC: Comparing How Devices Actually Talk to Each Other

October 4, 2026

These three terms often get mentally lumped together under "wireless," without much thought to what each one is actually built for — and they're genuinely not interchangeable.

Bluetooth: short range, low power, low throughput

Bluetooth is designed for close-range, low-power links — headphones, wearables, quick handshakes between nearby devices. It's genuinely not built to move a large file fast. Its role in tools like AirDrop is usually discovery — finding a nearby device — with the actual file data moving over Wi-Fi instead.

Wi-Fi: the actual workhorse

Wi-Fi offers far higher throughput and longer range, and it's what actually carries file data in most wireless transfer tools — including the local-network portion of a WebRTC connection whenever two devices happen to share one.

WebRTC: not a radio technology at all

This is the odd one out. Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are physical radio protocols; WebRTC is a software layer that opens a connection over whatever network is already available — Wi-Fi, mobile data, ethernet — and doesn't care which. It's a coordination and encryption layer sitting on top of a network connection, not a competing radio standard.

Why this distinction matters in practice

It's why a WebRTC-based transfer works between a phone on mobile data and a laptop on Wi-Fi — two completely different networks, which Bluetooth or a shared-Wi-Fi-only tool simply can't bridge, and which WebRTC never needed to be the same network in the first place.

Putting it together

Bluetooth finds nearby devices, Wi-Fi moves data fast on a local network, and WebRTC coordinates a connection across any network at all. Three different jobs — not three competing options for the same one.