A little glass drop zone in your Windows 11 taskbar.
Drop a file on it: it's on your phone. Send one back: it's in Downloads.

⬇ Download for Windows 11  ·  How it routes  ·  Phone to PC  ·  Setup  ·  Developers

No Bluetooth pairing. No Phone Link. No cables, no cloud account to create. PC to phone uses apps your phone already has (Gmail, Google Drive) or a free push app (ntfy). Phone to PC is a QR code: scan it, pick photos, they're in your Downloads folder. It opens in about half a second.

✨ Features

🪟 Lives in the taskbar	A capsule parked between the weather widget and Start. Hides itself when a game or video goes fullscreen.
🧊 Or on the desktop	A 136 px frosted-glass tile that blurs your real wallpaper and flips to dark text on bright backgrounds.
📎 Any file, any size	Small files ride as Gmail attachments. Big ones upload to Google Drive and arrive as a link in the same email.
📥 And back again	Phone to PC: scan a QR code, pick photos or files, they land in your Downloads folder. Same Wi-Fi, any size, no app.
🔗 Links and notes too	Drag a link or selected text onto it, or right-click → Send a note or link. Lands as an instant push notification.
📶 Live progress	Upload percentage right on the widget, plus a check mark (or a clear error) when it's done.
🔒 Your keys stay home	The Gmail app password is encrypted with Windows DPAPI. Drive access is limited to files this app uploaded.

🧭 How it routes

Pick one delivery mode in Settings. Every file lands in exactly one place, never duplicated.

flowchart LR
    F([📎 Files]) --> M{Mode}
    M -->|Auto, up to 18 MB| G[📧 Gmail attachment]
    M -->|Auto, over 18 MB| D[☁️ Google Drive upload]
    D -->|link| G
    M -->|Drive| D2[☁️ Google Drive]
    M -->|ntfy| N[🔔 Push notification]
    T([🔗 Links and notes]) --> N

Loading

Channel	Phone needs	Limit	Notes
Gmail	Gmail app	18 MB per email (bigger batches split)	Needs a Gmail app password (2-Step Verification on). Files stay in Gmail.
Google Drive	Drive app	Any size	Uploaded with rclone to a From PC folder, scope drive.file (it only sees its own uploads). Connect in Settings opens a Google consent page.
Push (ntfy)	ntfy app subscribed to your topic	15 MB per file	Instant, no account. ntfy.sh keeps files about 3 hours. The topic name acts as the password.

📥 Phone to PC

Right-click the widget → Receive from phone… Files land in your Downloads folder by default and a toast tells you (click it to show the file). On the phone's drop page, Save to lets you pick Downloads or any folder inside your OneDrive, and it remembers your pick.

Way	Phone needs	Limit	How
Wi-Fi drop page	Just the camera and a browser	Any size	Scan the QR code, tap Choose photos or files, or type or paste into Or send a message (it lands on the PC clipboard, and a link also opens when you click the toast). Phone and PC on the same network. Add the page to your Home Screen for one tap next time.
ntfy inbox	Android: ntfy app. iPhone: any browser	15 MB per file	Works from anywhere. Android: Share → ntfy → enter the inbox topic shown in the window. Elsewhere: open ntfy.sh/<inbox topic> and attach with the paperclip. Text and links you share land on the PC clipboard.

The first time, Windows asks whether Send to Phone may use the network: allow Private networks, or the phone can't reach the page. Campus, hotel and other public Wi-Fi often stop devices from seeing each other: use the ntfy inbox there, or Tailscale (its 100.x address, listed in the window, works from anywhere). The page only answers on its secret link, only to local-network addresses, and New link in the window locks out anyone who has the old one. Received files carry the same "downloaded from the internet" mark as browser downloads, so SmartScreen still checks anything runnable.

🚀 Setup

1. Download Send-to-Phone-Setup-x.y.z.exe from Releases and run it. It installs for your user only (no admin) and starts right away.
2. SmartScreen: the installer isn't code-signed, so Windows says "Windows protected your PC". Click More info, then Run anyway.
3. Settings opens on first run. Pick a mode and fill it in:
   • Gmail / Auto: your Gmail address plus an app password.
   • Google Drive: winget install Rclone.Rclone, then click Connect in Settings.
   • ntfy: install the ntfy app. Android: scan the QR code in Settings. iPhone: tap Copy topic and paste it into ntfy's + dialog.
4. Hit Test in Settings, then drop something on the widget.

Everything is stored on your PC in %APPDATA%\Send to Phone. Uninstall from Settings → Apps.

🖱️ Using it

• Drop files on the widget, or click it to pick files (multi-select works).
• Send a link or note: drag a link or text onto it, or right-click → Send a note or link… (pre-fills a link from your clipboard; Ctrl+Enter sends, Esc closes). Tapping a link notification on the phone opens it.
• Right-click for: Send files, Settings, In taskbar / On desktop, Keep on top and Reset position (desktop), Start with Windows (on by default), Quit.
• Receive from phone: right-click → Receive from phone… (or the link at the top of Settings). See Phone to PC.
• Tray icon: click it to bring the widget forward.

🔬 How the taskbar capsule and the glass work

Taskbar. Windows 11 has no taskbar add-in API, so the capsule is a topmost window placed with UI Automation (src/taskbar.js) in the gap between the Widgets button and Start. It is re-raised every second, hidden while a fullscreen app is active, and re-positioned every 30 s (Start moves when apps are pinned). When apps crowd the gap, it shrinks to an icon-only pill instead of covering the weather widget. The last position is saved, so later launches open in place instead of waiting on UI Automation. Errors show as a Windows toast.

Glass. Windows 11 acrylic only works on framed windows with 8 px corners, so the desktop tile reads your wallpaper (TranscodedWallpaper + WallpaperStyle from the registry), aligns it to the tile's screen position, and blurs it in CSS. Text flips dark on bright wallpapers. Wallpaper changes are picked up within 20 s.

Fast start. Mail and QR libraries load on first use, the taskbar mode never reads the wallpaper, and the first frame is painted in the right shape.

🛠️ For developers

npm install
npm start          # launches detached (clears VS Code's ELECTRON_RUN_AS_NODE)
npm test           # sender, downloads, drop server and ntfy inbox tests (localhost only)
npm run dist       # build dist/Send-to-Phone-Setup-<version>.exe (NSIS, per-user)
npm run media      # re-render docs/media (banner, states, taskbar, receive, demo GIF) from the real app markup
npm run icon       # regenerate assets/icon.png + icon.ico

If npm start fails with a missing electron.exe, npm skipped Electron's install script (allow-scripts): run node node_modules/electron/install.js.

Release: bump version in package.json, npm run dist, then gh release create v<version> dist/Send-to-Phone-Setup-<version>.exe.

Code map: src/main.js (windows, tray, IPC, settings) · src/sender.js (Gmail, Drive, ntfy) · src/dropserver.js (Wi-Fi drop page) · src/ntfyinbox.js (ntfy inbox) · src/downloads.js (saving into Downloads) · src/taskbar.js · src/wallpaper.js · src/widget.html · src/settings.html · src/receive.html

📄 License

ISC © Michael Fischbach