Transferring files from your computer to your smartphone and vice versa is more complicated than it should be. We still have nightmares about terrible synchronization programs, and many users have gotten used to the manual route, loading everything directly onto the memory card. Portal is shaping up as a much simpler alternative, creating a link between the web browser and the smartphone through a QR code. The rest is reduced to dragging and dropping files.
Many users want their smartphone to behave like a USB drive when connected to the computer. Thanks to the famous "USB Mode", some manufacturers allow the smartphone to appear as another drive... but examples are relatively few. Personally, every time I connect my smartphone to the computer, Windows sits in a corner eating glue like a four-year-old. I never managed to get the official synchronization software to work, and the only two things that have kept me away from the dark are a microUSB adapter and the AirDroid app, which I highly recommend.
Even so... AirDroid requires two or three steps before allowing file transfer. In an attempt to optimize this process, the folks at Pushbullet have created a new app called Portal. Once installed on the smartphone, all the user has to do is open it, go to the Portal page in the web browser on their computer, and scan the QR code that appears there. This will turn the page into a "drag & drop" area where we can drag all kinds of files. Portal also respects the structure of the files, so that it is possible to drag folders, and it has an intelligent identification system, meaning that images and music are placed in their respective sections so that other apps can access them.
As expected, Portal works over WiFi, so it doesn't affect the user's data plan, and as far as we can see, the only limit on the size of files to transfer is set by the phone's own storage, or the file system (Remember: FAT32 doesn't support files over 4 GB, even on memory cards). The only technical limitation of Portal is that it requires Android 4.4 or higher. The app is young, so it's worth having a little patience, but if you use a device with an earlier Android, maybe it's best to take a look at AirDroid.
