Transfer 1GB files with your friends on Facebook with Pipe

Say hello to the first ever file-transfer system that you can use over Facebook. After a year of invite-only and beta status, Pipe, the Facebook-integrated app is going to be available more widely starting today.

There is no dearth of cloud storage and file-transfer apps today, with heavyweights such as Dropbox and Google Drive providing a plethora of space and options to transfer files. Pipe, however, ties up peer-to-peer transfer with your social media self to give sending files to friends a whole new dimension. 

The app incorporated within Facebook has been developed by a Berlin-based company called Pipe Dream Technologies. Since it is fixed inside your Facebook account, it lets you connect with your friends and transfer files up to 1GB in size in real time on the social networking website.

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You can transfer up to 1GB of data with your Facebook friends

You will simply need to drag and drop a file into the Pipe app to send it to a friend. Pipe will be available on the App Center on Facebook in a few hours from now, so you can start sending out files to your contacts today onwards.

Pipe establishes a P2P connection with your friend’s computer when both of you are online. The app makers assure that neither does Pipe make use of any servers to establish contact between two computers, nor do your files pass through Facebook. In case a contact is offline and you need to send him a file, Pipe will store the file in a locker for your friend to retrieve it later. These lockers can store up to 100MB of data and you can make use of as many of them as you like.

“We’ve worked really hard to make Pipe this simple. Anyone can use it. The user just drops a file in the Pipe and their friend receives it. We’ve made the technology invisible,” said Simon Hossell, Founder and CEO of Pipe.

While Pipe is limited only to desktops as of now, mobile versions of the app seem to be in the works. The CEO says that while the iOS version of Pipe is almost ready, an Android version is still being developed.