HN Explorer

Ask HN: Is there a modern equivalent to instant messenger file transfers?

3 points by godot ↗ HN
Back in the 90s and early 00s in the age of ICQ and AIM (and other similar desktop messengers), direct file transfers were a standard feature in every messenger. If I understood correctly, this was a direct connection between two client users.

Nowadays the options for file transfers typically involve using some web services. One user would upload the file to some service, and it would be available for an http download by the other user (even if the link is protected).

As far as messengers go, most users use a mobile one now (understandably), and file transfers naturally aren't a part of standard featuresets (also understandably). What options do we have nowadays to send files to friends directly, on a computer, if we do not wish to go through uploading to a web service?

10 comments

[ 14.2 ms ] story [ 12.5 ms ] thread
yamrzou
Magic Wormhole. [1,2]

Similar tools: wormhole-william [3] and croc [4]

[1] https://github.com/magic-wormhole/magic-wormhole

[2] https://lwn.net/Articles/692061/

[3] https://github.com/psanford/wormhole-william

[4] https://github.com/schollz/croc

godot
I think I am looking for pretty much something like this but for non-tech-savvy users as well and for Windows. For use between family members who live apart.
psanford
There's a gui client for magic wormhole: https://github.com/Jacalz/wormhole-gui
godot
Thank you. Late comment, so you may not see it; but this is exactly what I'm looking for and it worked perfectly when I tested it out.

I feel like the market has room for a simple desktop IM + file transfer client based on Magic Wormhole. Something like this, with a contact list, and a bit more polished.

psanford
Glad it worked for you, shout out to Jacalz for building the gui client.

Wormhole is designed to work for when you don't already have an established secure communication channel. Once you have a contact list (and implicitly public key for your contacts) PAKEs are no longer useful.

What you have described is basically Signal Desktop.

godot
Oh I think the technical argument makes sense, it's just that as a user, Signal is pretty different -- it's mobile first, using the desktop version requires having the mobile app (and account tied to mobile). It's a lot different than say ICQ in the 90s where the account is with the desktop client.

Additionally, I haven't tried it so I don't know how well file transfers on Signal work, but I assume it's not truly a first class citizen feature on it and if you start trying to send e.g. multi-GB files, I assume it starts to break down like most mobile IM where the intention is to only transfer small files (PDFs etc.) here and there.

smt88
File transfers are a standard part of the feature set. AirDrop is on every Apple device. Android has something similar "Share Nearby" or something.

I believe both work offline.

godot
However, I'm looking for: 1) usage on computer, not mobile, 2) usage from Windows too, not just Mac, 3) Share via internet, not nearby/bluetooth/etc.