The disclosed embodiments provide a system that facilitates communication with a first electronic device from a second electronic device. During operation, the system establishes a peer-to-peer connection between the first electronic device and the second electronic device on a first physical network interface. Next, the system uses the peer-to-peer connection to obtain, on the second electronic device, a first set of network-interface capabilities for the first electronic device. Finally, the system switches the peer-to-peer connection to a second physical network interface based on at least one of the first set of network-interface capabilities and one or more characteristics associated with the peer-to-peer connection.