Hot take: All these are terrible, but not because the camera makers suck, but because there's no non-sucky way to do the thing we all would want:
What we want: Snap picture, picture is sent over high-bandwidth link to phone
Analysis: Can't be Bluetooth, also it's foolish to assume most pics are in wifi range of an access point, so it needs to be Wi-Fi Direct, like AirDrop is: Able to be performed with or without the parties being ON a network. The parties just p2p transfer the file.
More analysis: What would this take? 1. The blessings of the platform owners, at minimum Apple and other handset makers, probably Google too. The platform owners would need to provide:
1. Ability to make ad-hoc wi-fi direct connections with your other devices. APIs etc
2. Ability to either have your app running in the background, or be automatically silently launched in the background, to receive the image and add it to Photos.
No such abilities exist. All the cheesy hotspot things that they're doing is literally the only way to achieve such a goal without the cooperation of gatekeepers like Apple.
The (for me) most interesting thing is: why the fuck has no one managed to reverse engineer AirDrop and AirPlay yet, in a way that's mass market compatible?
Like, there is OpenDrop but that is dead since five years [1], it was a code dump by some researchers, and there are no client implementations to interact with Apple servers for getting keys, or with registering Find My devices...
reasons: 1. most other devices don't provides access to low level wi-fi drivers to actually support AWDL.
2. Airdrop is authenticated using Apple accounts on both sides.
3. legal foo
Samsung actually created such a monster. After a few zoom cameras running Android, they finally created the Samsung Galaxy NX, which was a mirrorless camera with a 20MP APS-C sensor and Android 4.2 (it was only slightly outdated on release in 2013). It's a mediocre camera (lacking most physical controls) and a mediocre android device (way too bulky and the fixed touchscreen isn't easy to use).
This is wrong. Wi-fi direct has always been possible with Android phones. Android even supports wi-fi direct connections simultaneously with wifi ap connections. Abdroid also supports the new wi-fi aware, euch simplifies initial contact via broadcasts.
I am not sure why the device manufacturers wouldn't implement it. Maybe they target iPhone first as the more premium users (which might only be true in the US), and then think they cannot support that feature for lowly Android users.
If enough devices supported this, Apple may be incentivised to follow?
If this is possible without any further APIs needed in Android, you should develop the next generation of the eye-fi type of concept which does what OP wants. You'll make a killing, and I agree, it's the kind of thing which theoretically could force Apple to at minimum steal your idea for their platform, or maybe if they're feeling generous provide an API for developers.
I agree with all of that, and that's an elaboration what the parent post said, but I still stand by my statement: the camera vendor apps are shitty because of that too, but they are also shitty because they are badly designed and coded.
the fact that there is no trivial way to transfer files between any two devices in the same room is one of the most pathetic failures of the tech industry
What we want: Snap picture, picture is sent over high-bandwidth link to phone
Analysis: Can't be Bluetooth, also it's foolish to assume most pics are in wifi range of an access point, so it needs to be Wi-Fi Direct, like AirDrop is: Able to be performed with or without the parties being ON a network. The parties just p2p transfer the file.
More analysis: What would this take? 1. The blessings of the platform owners, at minimum Apple and other handset makers, probably Google too. The platform owners would need to provide:
1. Ability to make ad-hoc wi-fi direct connections with your other devices. APIs etc 2. Ability to either have your app running in the background, or be automatically silently launched in the background, to receive the image and add it to Photos.
No such abilities exist. All the cheesy hotspot things that they're doing is literally the only way to achieve such a goal without the cooperation of gatekeepers like Apple.