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Pushbullet (for iPhone) Review

3.5
Good
By Jill Duffy

The Bottom Line

The free Pushbullet app lets you share links, directions and locations plotted in Google Maps, images, and other content quickly from one device to another. While it repeats what iOS and OS X can already do, it fills in the gaps for sharing among other platforms.

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Pros

  • Lets you send content quickly between devices.
  • Supports links, addresses in Google Maps, and images.
  • Options let you subscribe to content, RSS-reader style.

Cons

  • Not a full syncing service.
  • Very narrow content types in suggested Channels.
  • Google Maps addresses appear as links rather than image snippets.

iPhone users who also have a Mac running Yosemite know the simple joy of cross-device syncing. When a text message arrives on your iPhone, but you're using your laptop, it shows up there, too. Effortless syncing starts to come apart at the seams, however, when you have other operating systems in your mix, like a Windows computer and an Android tablet. Pushbullet (free) is an iPhone app and Web browser extension that fills in the cracks. It lets you quickly push links, addresses plotted in Google Maps, images, and other information to from one device to another in just a matter of taps or clicks. Pushbullet also pushes other kinds of content if you subscribe to it, like daily cartoons from Cyanide and Happiness, working something like an RSS reader.

It's a great app that does one or two things well, but it won't replace your other syncing services, like Dropbox or Box.

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Pushing Bullets
The Pushbullet iPhone app requires an account, but the service doesn't allow email and password combos. You can only sign up by authorizing a Google or Facebook account. To use Pushbullet to its fullest, you need to install it on other devices you use as well. There's a Pushbullet Android app, Mac app, Windows app in beta, plus browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox, plus one that's just been released for Safari.

Once you've created an account, you can start using Pushbullet immediately to send links and whatnot from your phone to your computer or Android device, or vice versa. For example, let's say I'm on my iPhone looking for images, and I think I've found something I like, but it's too hard to see it on the small screen. I can copy that URL and share it through Pushbullet, and it will show up in a jiffy as it's pushed to, say, the Firefox Pushbullet add-on. Then I can open the link lickety-split on a bigger screen. It saves me the time and effort of emailing the link to myself or sharing it some other way.

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Pushbullet (for iPhone)

Pushbullet works with links, Google Maps, images, and more. The Google Maps integration could be smarter, though. Mapped addresses and directions arrive on your iPhone as a link, and adding a snippet of an image might be more helpful. You also have to open that link in another app, and while you can set your preferences to Google Maps or Apple Maps, in my testing choosing the former actually dropped me into Safari rather than the Google Maps app. This section of the app just didn't work as I expected.

In certain circumstances, it doesn't make sense to use Pushbullet because there are other, better syncing service that already get the job done just fine. If you use the Chrome Web browser and app on all your devices, Chrome can automatically sync your activity, remembering which tabs you have open and your history of browsing so that it's the same whether you're on an iPhone or Windows 8 laptop. Dropbox, Box, or any other file-syncing service for that matter, will do a better job of making sure images in any real quantity get from one device to another fast. Pushbullet is useful in a pinch if, say, you have to share just one or two images between devices that don't have any other file-syncing system installed on them, but it takes a little more work to do it.

App Options
The Pushbullet iPhone app is straightforward and simple. Along the bottom are four icons, and one "new message" icon appears at the top right.

The first icon is a bullet, and it takes you to your main interface where you see incoming pushed content. The content appears in a stream, with the most recent items at the top. You can swipe to delete each one, which is helpful, as stuff can pile up quickly.

The next icon is for your profile, sort of. It's actually a screen showing the devices you have enabled with Pushbullet, contacts with whom you can share Pushbullet information, and a list of subscriptions that you've opted to receive, like daily cartoons and news updates.

The third section, shown by a TV set icon, lists Channels, which are basically RSS feed subscriptions, but they're done in a visual, app-centric way. If I dare say so, the suggested channels are very stereotypically masculine, without many feminine or even more general interests represented. The options focus on technology, sports, and video games. Compared to the suggestions you'd find in Flipboard, Digg, Feedly, or even a more interactive site like Pinterest, Pushbullet's are extremely narrow. It could use a healthy dose of art, design, fashion, music, culture, travel, politics, animals... should I go on? I wouldn't use Pushbullet for its Channels, as much better RSS feed readers are available for iPhone.

The last option in the app is for your settings, and there you can select your preferred Web browser for launching links, preferred app for launching maps, and otherwise customize your experience.

Helpful, but Not a Replacement
Pushbullet is helpful and fast for times when you need to get one or two things from a Windows computer to an iPhone, or from an iPhone to an Android tablet, but you don't have other ways to sync quickly. It's not necessarily an app you'll use everyday, but it comes in handy when you need it.

If you sync your use of Safari or Chrome, or if you regularly use a file-syncing service such as Dropbox or Box, Pushbullet won't seem all that magical. But if you have a simple Google Map on your Windows laptop's screen and want to load it quickly on your iPhone, you can make it happen fast with Pushbullet.

Pushbullet (for iPhone)
3.5
Pros
  • Lets you send content quickly between devices.
  • Supports links, addresses in Google Maps, and images.
  • Options let you subscribe to content, RSS-reader style.
Cons
  • Not a full syncing service.
  • Very narrow content types in suggested Channels.
  • Google Maps addresses appear as links rather than image snippets.
The Bottom Line

The free Pushbullet app lets you share links, directions and locations plotted in Google Maps, images, and other content quickly from one device to another. While it repeats what iOS and OS X can already do, it fills in the gaps for sharing among other platforms.

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About Jill Duffy

Columnist and Deputy Managing Editor, Software

I've been contributing to PCMag since 2011 and am currently the deputy managing editor for the software team. My column, Get Organized, has been running on PCMag since 2012. It gives advice on how to manage all the devices, apps, digital photos, email, and other technology that can make you feel like you're going to have a panic attack.

My latest book is The Everything Guide to Remote Work, which goes into great detail about a subject that I've been covering as a writer and participating in personally since well before the COVID-19 pandemic.

I specialize in apps for productivity and collaboration, including project management software. I also test and analyze online learning services, particularly for learning languages.

Prior to working for PCMag, I was the managing editor of Game Developer magazine. I've also worked at the Association for Computing Machinery, The Examiner newspaper in San Francisco, and The American Institute of Physics. I was once profiled in an article in Vogue India alongside Marie Kondo.

Follow me on Mastodon.

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Pushbullet (for iPhone) $0.00 at Apple.com
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