So, today is the extremely rare day in which I can peacefully sit down and do what I actually want to do instead of getting my head stuck in linear algebra textbooks. I love public holidays, they are always great until replacement classes show up (in which they will, but not now, so let me empty my brain and enjoy this current moment).
Until this day, I am still using an Android phone with only 8GB internal storage. It is manufactured by Samsung, and low storage space does not fit well with any manufacturer you can find on Earth, especially Samsung. So, my plan today is to install a custom ROM on it like what I was used to do for every single phone I get in the past, nuking all irritating bloatware, getting a fresh out-of-the-box Android experience, and at the same time get a big bunch of bugs and adventures.
It’s okay, I don’t need the alarm tomorrow anyway, and class starts at 4pm. I can forgive the ROM if the alarm does not work for one day in this case :)
Alright, but what is the first step prior to installing a custom ROM? Obviously, you have to back up your files.
It’s just a simple copy paste
Theoretically.
Just saying, but MTP (Media Transfer Protocol) sucks. The connection is unstable, slow, and often results in rage and tears. Besides, it is the only native option to transfer data from internal storage to your computer. I really don’t like using it. Luckily, it’s Android. We have a bunch of magic in the Play Store to make life hurt less.
In the past, I was used to use Airdroid to move my files from the phone to the computer. It works over local Wi-Fi connection so it is pretty fast. The same goes to Shareit, it also uses the local connection but it requires an app to be installed on the computer side, so that is a huge downside for me (yes, I really don’t like installing things on my Windows PC, and it won’t work for Linux). These two apps also have one common downside – they do more than just file transfer. Airdroid comes with a file manager, a phone tracking feature, and many more that you can just call it as a Christmas tree. Shareit does the same, with a bonus – notification ads that destroy gaming moments every single time and it drains battery in the background like it has nothing else better to do. I hate it when something does advertisements the wrong way.
Today I stumbled upon a tiny little app that does Wi-Fi transfer correctly in my opinion – Sweech. How tiny is it? <4MB to download and it does not do anything else apart from giving a nice little interface for you to do file transfer over Wi-Fi. Perfect for my needs.
If you want to see how naïve this app is, there you go with a screenshot. Very simple.
It works very easily. Tap that button, go to your computer and enter the address in your web browser (they must be in the same network aka connected to the same router, wired or wireless connection doesn’t matter), and get greeted by this neat interface.
The interface is very neat. There’s no ads everywhere and the interface is super responsive. There’s no big issue responding to clicks and it loads pretty fast. The material design applied throughout the page is a huge bonus – it is designed to work exactly the same on every single platform. No matter you are on a phone, a tablet, or a computer, you can just hit up the same address and see a similar interface to do similar things. I love this idea. Anyway, I have not tried this UI on any mobile devices because I only have one phone with me. However, it should be equally responsive with minimal lags.
It mimics the UI of the native Android File Manager, with shortcuts to various file types on the left panel for you to reach your files pretty easily. So, it should look and feel similar to Android users. That’s another plus of the design, and the UI really means a lot to the user. At least, that is what I think.
Obviously, what we care the most is the capabilities of the app, since that is what that matters most. The upload button is quite visible on the bottom right of the page, and you can easily create folders, select multiple files to download, and there is a nice “select all” button for you to select every single thing you in the current folder. It’s all on the upper right, like what a native Android app would look like. The biggest downside would be how it might look confusing to certain users, since I don’t think there are any tooltips or text hints for the users about what the button works. There are no tooltips on Android anyway, but desktop users would appreciate it if there are some hints for first-time users to learn the app. I can understand why the app does not get a lot of downloads on the Play Store, it is pretty new and is not that newbie-proof. That would be something the app could work on.
Everyone would care how fast and how stable the transfer would be, since it is a file transfer app anyway. What I can say is, the transfer is pretty smooth and stable. It managed to transfer my 2GB worth of MP3 files from the phone to the computer with a speed close to 3.7MB/s without any interruptions. It even managed to stay calm and keep on transferring if you press the home button and to do something else during the transfer, as long as you don’t turn off Wi-Fi it will be fine. It also does not hurt the phone’s performance during the transfer, I can happily play Tower of Saviors while the huge transfer is going on with minimal to no FPS drops. Of course, I did not try this with games that require good connections (such as Vainglory), since obviously it won’t work well with it. Unless the Wi-Fi card is very good…well, I don’t trust my phone that much. :P
The app is free to use without any ads, but there is a paid option that allows you to enable HTTPS for transfers (basically more security) and a password option (also security). Right now if I enable the app, anyone can scan my IP address, point their web browser to it with the correct port, and they can access my files. Obviously that is not a good thing, so there’s a reason to pay for this app. But, you can still safely use it in private networks that are protected with a Wi-Fi password as it will still be secure enough.
I would say this is a very good app if you know how to use it. It is clearly not the most braindead app, not the most newbie friendly app, not the most powerful one, but is indeed the one that gives nothing extra and does what it should do perfectly. A great guy once said that a good code does only one thing, and it does it correctly. I guess this app nailed it. Took me a quick half an hour to pull all the important photos and files from my phone to my laptop and I am not even putting effort, it’s really a godsend.
That wraps it up, see you next time :)
--Lilacse
P/s: Here’s a peak on how huge a mess my phone is. I really don’t know what the hell are these.
