Quickly share encrypted, auto-expiring files with Firefox Send [App of the Week]

These days, there seems to be a near-endless number of options when it comes to sharing files with people.

However, not every option is great: that’s where Firefox Send comes in.

This lightweight little app makes it easy to send files up to 2.5GB in size over a secure, end-to-end encrypted platform.

Mozilla, the company behind the app as well as the popular Firefox browser, launched Send back in March along with a beta app for Android. The company boasted high upload limits and security as the main features of Send.

Of course, the app’s simplicity is an advantage as well. To use Send, you can download it for free from the Play Store — or just head to send.firefox.com.

First, you upload a file, which is quickly done by tapping or clicking the big plus button. When you pick a file, Send lets you customize the parameters around sharing it. This includes expiration dates. For example, you can have it expire after a certain number of downloads or days. You can also set a password to protect the file.

Once you pick your parameters, Firefox Send gives you a link. You can share that with anyone so they can download the file themselves.

From the main screen of the website or Android app, you can manage all your uploaded files, delete items and get sharing links as well.

Overall, it’s a relatively simple system, but one that works quite well. It’s also a non-committal system. You don’t need to sign up for an account or anything. That said, Mozilla does cap the upload to 1GB if you don’t sign in with a Firefox account.

And thanks to its lightweight nature, it works flawlessly on almost all devices. It’s overall less effort than, say, using Dropbox or Google Drive to share files, although those platforms still have their place.

If Firefox Send is something you find useful, you can download the free Android app from the Play Store here. While there’s, unfortunately, no iOS app at the moment, you can head to send.firefox.com in any browser as well, so you can still send and share files on iOS.