FileApex is a file-sharing app I built for one job: moving files between my own devices without handing them to a cloud service first. Android, Mac, Windows, Linux, and Docker nodes — they all talk to each other directly.
Repo: https://github.com/byhowiecreations/FileApex/
Google Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fileapex
(F-Droid coming soon)
Why
I tried the alternatives first, and each one had a catch. LocalSend only works on the same network, with no way to opt in to anything else. Blip was slow to get a transfer started when I tried it. KDE Connect works, but outside Linux it felt buggy to me, and the interface looks dated.
FileApex covers what I actually wanted: the same fast local transfers, plus reach over the internet through Tailscale or Iroh when I'm away, resume after a dropped connection, clipboard and notifications across devices, and no account required. Everything beyond the LAN is opt-in.
The idea
Most file-sharing tools either route everything through someone else's server or only work when both devices are on the same Wi-Fi. FileApex tries to do better:
- LAN first. When devices share a network, transfers stay on it. No upload, no download, no middleman.
- Tailscale and Iroh when you're away. Out on cellular or another network, devices still reach each other — over your tailnet, or over Iroh by device key, with relay fallback.
- Your devices, your rules. Pairing runs over TLS with a QR code or a six-digit code both sides compare. No account needed to share between your own machines.
What it does
- Send files and folders between paired devices, with resume and whole-file checksum verification.
- Bulletin Board — a shared board across your devices for notes and files, with missed-post catch-up when a device comes back online.
- Clipboard sharing between devices, end-to-end encrypted in transit.
- Friends — send and receive with people outside your own devices, over an isolated endpoint that can't reach your roster, clipboard, or browsing.
- Battery-conscious by design. Iroh rests while you're on a LAN and wakes on network change, and background work is kept to a minimum.
Privacy, concretely
- A stranger asking a device who it is gets almost nothing: device id, name, ports, and public key — no make, model, OS, or file paths.
- Cloud pushes (clipboard, Bulletin text) go through Google's push notification system — but they're end-to-end encrypted, so nothing in them can be read in transit.
- Secrets like keys and PINs are sealed in the OS keystore/keychain/DPAPI, not sitting in plain text.
Status
FileApex is in active development — something I've been refining day and night for several months. It's a personal project, built in the open — feedback, bug reports, and ideas are welcome on the repo. All features are opt-in by design.
If you juggle a phone and a laptop and you're tired of your files taking a detour through the cloud, give it a try: https://github.com/byhowiecreations/FileApex/
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