Blip: Peer-to-peer massive file sharing

by miles • 1 year ago

157 111 1 year ago

Does anyone have an idea of how this is built? I wonder if they are using QUIC with relay servers or something like Tailscale's DERP.

realsdx• 1 year ago

If it's truly p2p, some relay would be there in case the client cannot be reached through NAT. Not sure how they would bear the cost of the bandwidth for unlimited transfers in that case

wongarsu• 1 year ago

Traffic is pretty cheap outside the big clouds. For example Hetzner charges $1/TB on a 10Gbit connection

iamcalledrob• 1 year ago

It's something closer to Tailscale DERP.

We evaluated QUIC (and many other approaches). Turns out it's a lot harder than you might think to move traffic at high speed across the world, over residential-grade internet, and not drain your battery.

binary132• 12 months ago

Did you consider Iroh and if you chose not to use it, why not?

2color• 1 year ago

I wouldn't be surprised if it's built with Iroh

https://www.iroh.computer/

greener_grass• 1 year ago

Is this AirDrop but cross-platform?

kjksf2• 1 year ago

No.

AirDrop is for people who are physically nearby.

This allows to send files between any computers anywhere.

The other person must be a known contact but it doesn't have to be on the same local network like in AirDrop.

dewey• 1 year ago

There’s a new AirDrop feature that also transfers over the internet: https://allthings.how/how-airdrop-over-internet-works-on-iph...

FabHK2• 1 year ago

Addressed in the FAQ:

How is Blip different to nearby sharing like AirDrop? Apple’s “AirDrop” and Google’s “Nearby Share” can be really handy. However, they aren’t compatible with each other and require devices to be physically next to each other. They are also unreliable when transferring large files, and will often lose your progress.
Blip doesn’t need devices to be nearby, so it’s much more reliable. Blip works wherever your internet connected devices are in the world, and works regardless of what kind of device you own. You can transfer from Android to Mac, Windows to iPhone, iPad to Android—you name it!

miksak• 1 year ago

I wonder how widely usable is file sharing nowadays when most of the non tech people just use cloud services for their data, be it google docs or some cloud photo storage

supportengineer2• 1 year ago

Non-tech people couldn't tell you what a "file" is.

ryandrake2• 1 year ago

I think non-tech people used to be able to, but tech companies have been on a 10+ year long crusade against the concept of a "file" and where that file is "stored" and trying to blur once-sharp lines so that people forget. Tech really wants you to think of your data as an amorphous blob vaguely "in their app" and not worry about crisp delineations like files, whose hard drive those files are on, and whose machine that hard drive is in.

nrmitchi• 1 year ago

Most non-tech people do not just use cloud services for their data.

Really not sure where you got that from, but even if it was true, most non-tech people will still shy away from putting a 250G file in a cloud service once they get prompted to upgrade their plan because they don't have enough space.

thehappypm• 1 year ago

Cloud is kinda the default now. Most Americans just take pictures with their iPhones and it ends up in icloud.

crazygringo2• 1 year ago

I dunno, seems like most do? Their stuff is in Google Photos, Google Docs, iCloud Drive, etc. And yes they pay for the space once their photos or phone backups get big enough.

And I don't know any non-tech people who have any 250GB files. The only people I know with those shoot 4K video professionally. Or scientists running truly massive simulations.

abcd_f6• 1 year ago

This is a minor OCD nitpick, but

at super fast speeds

Fast speeds aren't a thing, just like cheap prices and wet waters aren't.

Tokumei-no-hito• 1 year ago

nit-nit, what's wrong with cheap prices? price doesnt infer magnitude.

abcd_f6• 1 year ago

Cheap means "low in price". Price can't be "low in price", it can be just "low".

therealdrag0• 1 year ago

I don’t follow. Speed and price can be many values, high or low. It’s perfectly valid to add an adjective describing it as fast or cheap.

abcd_f6• 1 year ago

Cheap means "low in price", so "cheap price" makes no sense.

Fast means "of a high speed", so it's the same here.

Foivos• 1 year ago

Somehow it has to be contrasted with ``slow'' speeds.

abcd_f6• 1 year ago

"High speeds"

readthenotes1• 1 year ago

That's a quality nit pick for sure.

J/k

It's a high quality nit pick imo:)

Saris2• 1 year ago

Interesting that it says "Internet sending may be slower during peak times to keep things fair" even though it's supposed to be P2P?

Maybe they just mean if you end up with a relayed connection due to NAT issues? Because lower down it says "Send as fast as your connection"

tantalor• 1 year ago

When a direct connection isn’t possible, files travel through our servers.

bilbo0s• 1 year ago

That's what actually made it a hard pass for me.

Saris2• 1 year ago

I figured, it's just explained in an odd way.

tomazsh10• 1 year ago

That's right. We actively manage load across our relay network to ensure good performance, but we'll prioritize business transfers during peak times. We don't artificially limit the client, but P2P connection speeds can sometimes be affected by router configurations and ISP routing. For example, some ISPs route P2P traffic through slower paths, which can introduce variability.

poisonborz• 1 year ago

Free open source alternative: https://pairdrop.net

dhruvmittal• 1 year ago

Magic Wormhole [1] also exists.

[1] https://magic-wormhole.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

ori_b• 1 year ago

And for a web native version, there's also WebWormhole: https://webwormhole.com/

ch71r22• 1 year ago

also Keet: https://keet.io/

rickydroll2• 1 year ago

Syncthing [1] also exists

[1] https://syncthing.net/

jszymborski• 1 year ago

Is there something like a Magic Wormhole server, so I can e.g host a file on my NAS (behind a NAT) for download long term?

drexlspivey• 1 year ago

I vibe coded this in one hour to send files to my work laptop. Static page + webRTC + short lived cloudflare durable object to make the handshake.

https://send.drexl.dev/

ishanjain28• 1 year ago

Are you people seriously suggesting webrtc crap in response to a native app built for much much high speed transfers? Unbelievable

evantbyrne• 1 year ago

There's also LocalSend, which I've found works the best for me personally and is a bit more polished than browser clients

jjcob2• 1 year ago

There's also croc: https://github.com/schollz/croc

snvzz• 1 year ago

croc has the advantage of being well-established by now. Most package systems have it.

seemaze• 1 year ago

..also FilePizza as a web service: https://github.com/kern/filepizza

or tailscale's Taildrop as a native application: https://tailscale.com/kb/1106/taildrop

lagniappe• 1 year ago

I have a few qualms with this app:

1. For a Linux user, you can already build such a system yourself quite trivially by getting an FTP account, mounting it locally with curlftpfs, and then using SVN or CVS on the mounted filesystem. From Windows or Mac, this FTP account could be accessed through built-in software.

2. It doesn't actually replace a USB drive. Most people I know e-mail files to themselves or host them somewhere online to be able to perform presentations, but they still carry a USB drive in case there are connectivity problems. This does not solve the connectivity issue.

3. It does not seem very "viral" or income-generating. I know this is premature at this point, but without charging users for the service, is it reasonable to expect to make money off of this?

bestouff• 1 year ago

Hey isn't this the same famous reply as the one the Dropbox founder got here in HN ?

rising-sky• 1 year ago

infamous*

but yes, sure sounds like it!

jcalx• 1 year ago

Context, for the above: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224

It worked out the first time!

muppetman• 1 year ago

Thanks for this - I thought the OP was insane...

otterley2• 1 year ago

you can already build such a system yourself quite trivially by getting an FTP account, mounting it locally with curlftpfs, and then using SVN or CVS on the mounted filesystem...

I don't think the word "trivially" means what you think it means.

[Edit: I now realize the above is a verbatim quote from a naysayer after the Dropbox announcement]

lynndotpy• 1 year ago

Other comments have added context, but this is a Hacker News "copypasta" of sorts, from DropBox's first launch.

Dylan168073• 1 year ago

I don't think the word "trivially" means what you think it means.

You cut off "for a linux user [in 2007]" and that's a very important part of the sentence.

kvirani• 1 year ago

Haha

rvz• 1 year ago

The joke at hand. [0] Here we go again.

Now let see if the founder(s) will reply here and to run it all back from start to IPO.

What would the founders do differently from dhouston this time?

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224

pluto_modadic• 1 year ago

1. - FTP could fail / doesn't resume the same way rsync, mutagen, or syncthing could

2. - nothing would by your criteria of an airgap, that's a strawman, this is just an alternative over the wire method (as is bluetooth file transfer)

tomazsh10• 1 year ago

Classic lore! :)

mbrumlow• 1 year ago

So airdrop…

Not sure why this needs to be a service. Or why data needs to go through their servers.

abcd_f6• 1 year ago

It appears that the data is relayed as a fallback, if there's no p2p connection possible. This is a classic transfer model for mediated transfers.

givemeethekeys2• 1 year ago

It looks like this lets you share files with people using a different operating system than MacOS. Does AirDrop let you do that?

subarctic• 1 year ago

His point is about it being a service vs just a peer to peer app

otterley2• 1 year ago

AirDrop only works on local networks, not over the Internet.

api• 1 year ago

Wait... you're telling me it's 2025 and we can finally conveniently send files?

BoredPositron3• 1 year ago

Looks not really convenient...

supportengineer2• 1 year ago

It's like YouSendIt!

system2• 1 year ago

Who else needs to share files bigger than 1 TB? Most cloud services, such as Google Drive or OneDrive, are more than sufficient for managing massive files. I don't see the appeal of this new service.

supertrope• 1 year ago

It would save you the time to upload first, effectively halving the time required.

yjftsjthsd-h• 1 year ago

Oddly enough, I would argue the exact opposite direction; really big files are exactly where I want to do a direct p2p transfer without paying to store it in the cloud.

unquietwiki2• 1 year ago

Google Drive throttles uploads over 5GB, and not everyone has a storage plan that could fit that.

timc3• 1 year ago

Don't see any mention of an API.

tomazsh10• 1 year ago

We don't have the API yet, but are exploring use cases for it. Send me an email at tomaz@blip.net -- would love to chat.

markasoftware• 1 year ago

"former dropbox engineers" doesn't mean a whole lot -- it's a large company where tens of thousands of people have worked over the years. It's not like this is by the founders or anything.

ryandrake2• 1 year ago

Yea, "former [COMPANY] employee" could mean anything. I'm not sure it's really much of a flex. I'm a former Apple employee. Nobody gives a shit, and nobody should--That doesn't count for anything if I were to do a software startup. It wouldn't even bear mentioning in a press release.

dang• 1 year ago

Ok, we've taken the former dropbox engineers out of the title now.

rahimnathwani• 1 year ago

This looks awesome. For sending files between my phone (Android) and my son's iPad, I use:

Android: Wormhole William (https://github.com/psanford/wormhole-william-mobile)

iOS: Destiny (https://github.com/LeastAuthority/destiny)

Some drawbacks to my current approach:

1. Destiny needs to be configured to use the standard Magic Wormhole servers (just once, after installation): https://github.com/LeastAuthority/destiny/issues/259#issueco...

2. Initiating a transfer requires out of band communication and some copy+paste.

leosanchez• 1 year ago

Android app looks beautiful. Waiting for the Linux version.

tomazsh10• 12 months ago

Thanks. We put a lot of work into our apps.

ceronman• 1 year ago

This looks really cool. I especially like the "Keep your progress, whatever happens" feature.

The product looks polished and I definitely see myself using it. My only concern is: Are they taking VC money? Is this going to be enshittified to death trying to pursue a 1000x investment return?

landl0rd2• 1 year ago

No benchmark comparisons with Aspera or similar even though they compare pricing? Because my gut instinct is it's probably a good bit slower.

tomazsh10• 1 year ago

That's not what our professional customers are telling us :) Good point about adding benchmarks to our website though.

landl0rd2• 1 year ago

That's awesome man, I'm glad to hear there's a viable competitor. Gl and I look forward to seeing it.

satvikpendem• 1 year ago

I wonder what tech stack they're using, given it supports all the major platforms. I like sendme [0] which uses iroh, a peer-to-peer library as well.

[0] https://github.com/n0-computer/sendme

manoji• 1 year ago

Surprised syncthing isn't mentioned yet. It has been the most stable sync tool for me over the years https://syncthing.net/ . Solid product . Great oboarding experience for Blip! Its just working!

tomazsh10• 1 year ago

Hey! Blip co-founder here. We didn't expect to show up on HN, but really grateful to OP for sharing Blip. Here's a little bit more about it.

We've built Blip because it's still hard to send original quality photos, videos, and large files to your devices and to other people on the internet. We’re designers and engineers, so our goal has always been to keep the product super simple on the surface, but really fast and powerful underneath.

Blip works in a peer-to-peer way at the UI level: you pick the device or person, and Blip takes care of the delivery. Transfers go directly over WAN whenever possible, and fall back to relays when needed. The idea is to send in one click, skipping the usual dance of moving files through cloud drives and managing shared links.

Under the hood, Blip is optimized for large media and data transfers. It supports full-speed acceleration, resumable progress, and we're rolling out E2EE across all clients to ensure sensitive business data remains secure. Many creative pros and teams already use Blip in their daily media workflows.

We don’t monetize data because it doesn't align with the values of our creative and technical users. Instead, we run on a simple donation and subscription model that lets you support the product and use it without limits, quotas, and frustrations. Our goal is to make file transfer feel invisible.

Happy to answer any questions.

mempko• 1 year ago

Linux support please!

tomazsh10• 12 months ago

We hear you :)

pizzathyme• 1 year ago

Looks amazing! Maybe a dumb question: why isn't Dropbox doing this? Why did you all need to leave to make this a reality?

tomazsh10• 1 year ago

Thank you, and great question. In my experience, big companies have way more strategic priorities than two guys who just want to build something useful. We didn't leave to build exactly this, but a few things came together organically from past projects, including our work at Dropbox.

NautilusWave• 12 months ago

What's the timeline on rolling out E2EE? Is it for paid users only?

tomazsh10• 12 months ago

Gold standard on all plans. Already supported for transfers between iOS and Mac devices. Android and Windows coming soon.

packetlost• 1 year ago

I'd be more inclined to use this if it were open source. Oh well.

skyzyx• 12 months ago

Teams have been building services like this for ~20 years. They very rarely stick. I agree that it’s still too hard, but the market has historically been too small. It’s at-best a hobby side project for a larger company that can afford to burn the cash.

Like Apple offers this for email for iCloud users. I think Firefox Relay offered it too. There was another company in the late 00s that offered a P2P version.

I mean _cool_, but I’ve not seen a company with this as its primary product last more than 18 months before. With that, _good luck_.

Blip: Peer-to-peer massive file sharing

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