It's one of those tasks that should be trivial and somehow isn't. You have a video on your phone and you need it on your laptop. Lots of people end up emailing it to themselves, hitting the attachment limit, and trying again with a smaller file.

Here are the fastest options for each phone and computer combination.

iPhone → Mac

AirDrop. Nothing beats it. Open the share sheet, tap AirDrop, pick your Mac. Both devices need Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on, and the Mac needs to be discoverable (Finder → AirDrop → "Allow me to be discovered by").

For lots of photos, the Photos app on the Mac can also import directly over a USB cable, and iCloud Photos syncs everything automatically if you have the storage for it.

Android → Windows

Quick Share. Google's Quick Share (formerly Nearby Share) has an official Windows app. Install it on the PC, and your Android phone can send files to it directly, much like AirDrop.

Phone Link. Microsoft's Phone Link app, built into Windows, can also move photos and files from Android phones.

USB cable. Plug in, then on the phone choose "File transfer" when it asks what the USB connection is for. The phone appears in File Explorer like a drive.

iPhone → Windows

This is the awkward one, since AirDrop doesn't work with Windows.

USB cable for photos. Connect the iPhone, tap "Trust This Computer" on the phone, and use the Windows Photos app to import. Videos and photos come across; other files don't.

iCloud for Windows. Install it and sign in, and your iCloud Photos and iCloud Drive appear on the PC. Good if you already use iCloud; a lot of setup if you just need one file.

Upload and download. For one-off files, uploading from the phone's browser and opening the link on the PC is often the quickest route. No apps or accounts needed on either side.

A note on photos: iPhone photos are HEIC by default, which Windows may not open without the HEIF Image Extensions. When transferring via cable, iPhones often convert to JPEG automatically. You can control this under Settings → Photos → Transfer to Mac or PC → Automatic.

Android → Mac

Apple and Google don't make this easy.

USB cable: Macs don't natively browse Android storage. You need a third-party app such as OpenMTP (free) to see the phone's files.
Google Photos: if your photos back up there, open photos.google.com on the Mac and download.
Upload a link: again, the browser route needs no setup on either device.

Large videos specifically

A few minutes of 4K video can be several gigabytes. Wireless options like AirDrop and Quick Share handle that fine because they use a direct local connection. Cloud-based options (iCloud, Google Photos, uploading a link) depend on your internet upload speed, which on home connections is often slow. For big videos, prefer:

AirDrop or Quick Share if available
USB cable
Cloud or upload link, on Wi-Fi rather than mobile data

Why not just email it?

Emailing yourself works for small things like a document or a couple of photos. It breaks down quickly:

Attachment limits of 20-25MB rule out almost any video.
Phone mail apps sometimes offer to "resize" images, which lowers quality.
It clutters your inbox with copies you'll never delete.

Quick reference

iPhone → Mac: AirDrop
Android → Windows: Quick Share or USB
iPhone → Windows: USB for photos, upload link for everything else
Android → Mac: upload link, or OpenMTP with a cable
Somebody else's computer: upload link. No pairing, no accounts, nothing left behind on their machine

That last case comes up more often than you'd expect: printing at a library, presenting from a colleague's laptop, using a hotel business center. A link you open once and that expires on its own is a tidy solution.

Getting Files From Your Phone to Your Computer (Every Combination)