Questions, answered straight.

A free app for your Mac, your Windows PC, your iPhone and your Android phone. It sends files straight between them over the Wi-Fi you are already on.

There is no account to make, no cloud to upload to, and no server in the middle. The apps find each other on the local network and push the bytes directly.

Yes, in both directions, and that is the reason the iPhone app exists. Two phones from different makers sitting on the same table have never had a simple way to hand each other a photo.

Beam runs the same protocol at both ends, so they do. The same goes for an iPhone and a Windows PC, or an Android phone and a Mac.

No, because there is no server to reach. Both devices have to be on the same network and the file goes straight from one to the other. Turn the Wi-Fi off and Beam has nobody to talk to.

No account, no sign-in, no analytics. Read the privacy policy.

Check the version first: Settings › Version shows a protocol number on every Beam, and two devices only talk when it matches. A device on another version is still listed, with which side needs updating.

On Windows, Beam says so when Windows Firewall is blocking it, and Allow fixes it in one step. Guest and office Wi-Fi often keep devices from seeing each other at all; a phone hotspot or your home network will work.

What arrived is kept. The receiver holds on to the partial file, so sending the same thing again picks up where it stopped rather than starting from zero. The same applies when you press Stop on purpose.

Partial files that nobody comes back for are cleaned up after seven days.

The sender hashes the file while it streams and sends the SHA-256 once the bytes are through. The receiver writes into a staging file first, checks the hash across the whole file, and only then moves it into your save folder.

A transfer that fails the check never becomes a file that looks finished. It is discarded, and the sender is told exactly which file needs sending again.

Every device holds a private key. When it sends, the receiver picks a random challenge and the sender has to sign it, so it proves who it is instead of just claiming a name.

“Always accept from this device” pins that key’s fingerprint, which is printed on the prompt so two people can read it to each other. If a familiar name ever turns up behind a different key, Beam says so and never accepts it silently.

Not yet, and it is worth being straight about that. Beam verifies who is sending, so nobody on your network can pretend to be your Mac and drop files in your Downloads folder. But the bytes are not encrypted on the wire, so someone capturing packets on the same network could read them.

On your home Wi-Fi that is a small risk; on a shared or café network it is a real one. Encryption over the same handshake is the next release.

SmartScreen shows “Windows protected your PC” for installers it has not seen many times before. Choose More info › Run anyway. Beam installs for your account only, so it does not ask for administrator rights.

Files Beam receives on Windows are marked as coming from another computer, the same way a browser marks a download, so Windows checks a received program before running it.

iOS will not let an app keep listening on the network in the background. The Mac lives in the menu bar, Windows in the tray and Android runs a background service, so all three keep receiving whatever you are doing. The iPhone has to be open on screen.

Not yet. Zip it first and send the archive. Folders are on the list.

macOS 14 Sonoma or later on Apple silicon and Intel, Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit), Android 10 or later, and iOS 17 or later. Both devices need to be on the same network; Beam does not use Bluetooth or mobile data.