By next year, Apple will only allow AirDrops to last for 10 minutes.
In order to quell the spam air dropping proliferates, iOS 16.2 beta will introduce a new ‘Everyone for 10 Minutes’ feature specific to AirDrop content in China. Previously, there was no limit as to how long an AirDrop message could last; however, many people living in China complain about the continuous spread of anti-government material from protestors via this method.
Currently, AirDrop has three options- ‘Everyone’, ‘Contacts Only’, and Receiving Off. By selecting the ‘Everyone’ option, iPhone users can send messages within close proximity to other iPhones without any exclusions for 10 minutes. If no selection is made after 10 minutes have passed, then the settings default to Contacts Only as a safety measure.
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that the new AirDrop option will be available to all users next year in order to reduce spam file sharing.
