Google has officially released its new tool to rival Apple’s AirDrop, “Nearby Share”. It took Google quite some time to come up with this feature. For a year, there had been rumors that Google is working on an AirDrop rival tool. Nearby Share allows sharing between Android devices, running Android 6 or above. This feature has been rolled out to Pixel Phones and Samsung Phones already and it will be available on other Android devices soon. Google said:
It’s continuing to work with our partners to bring Nearby Share to more smartphones in the Android ecosystem over the next few weeks.
Nearby Share tool will allow you to share files with the people around you. This tool is similar to Apple’s AirDrop, which is also used for sharing. This tool has made sharing faster and much easier. Moreover, Google says, it is possible to even share files anonymously. This feature is not yet available on Apple’s Airdrop. For now, this tool only works between Android phones, but soon it will also work with Google’s Chromebooks.
Apple’s Airdrop was launched back in 2011, and Google launched Nearby Share this year, this means Google took 9 years to come up with this feature. However, Android had a sharing feature that worked via NFC but it was slower.
Samsung also launched an AirDrop-like feature “Quick Share” this year along with OneUI 2.1 but this feature is only available on the latest Samsung smartphones. Quick Share has more features than AirDrop, you can temporarily upload files to Samsung Cloud and stream them on other Samsung devices.
How To Use “Nearby Share” on Android
While sharing, Google automatically picks up the best protocol according to your environment, “Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Energy, WebRTC or peer-to-peer Wi-Fi”. To share a file:
- Open the file.
- Click on the share button.
- Tap on “Nearby”.
- Your phone will now locate devices around you that are open for sharing.
- Choose the device from the list.
- Share the file.
This tool is only available on Android 6 and above.
Masab Farooque is a Tech Geek, Writer, and Founder at The Panther Tech. He is also a lead game developer at 10StaticStudios.
When he is not writing, he is mostly playing video games