Nearby Share was a functionality developed by

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

that allowed data to be transferred between devices via

Bluetooth Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is li ...

Wi-FI Direct Wi-Fi Direct is a Wi-Fi standard for wireless connections that allows two devices to establish a direct Wi-Fi connection without an intermediary wireless access point, Router (computing), router, or Internet connection. Wi-Fi Direct is single-hop ...

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

. In 2024, it was merged into Samsung's Quick Share. It was available for

Android Android most commonly refers to: *Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human * Android (operating system), a mobile operating system primarily developed by Google * Android TV, a operating system developed ...

ChromeOS ChromeOS, sometimes styled as chromeOS and formerly styled as Chrome OS, is an operating system designed and developed by Google. It is derived from the open-source operating system and uses the Google Chrome web browser as its principal user ...

and

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

. It was first released on August 4, 2020. Nearby Share is not to be confused with Microsoft's similarly-named "nearby sharing" feature, which is only available for PCs running Windows 10 or later and uses Microsoft's own proprietary protocol.

History

Before Nearby Share, Google launched Android Beam in 2011. By 2017,

ComputerWorld ''Computerworld'' (abbreviated as CW) is a computer magazine published since 1967 aimed at information technology (IT) and Business computing, business technology professionals. Original a print magazine, ''Computerworld'' published its final pr ...

included Android Beam in a list of "once-trumpeted features that quietly faded away", observing that "despite the admirable marketing effort, Beam never quite worked particularly well, and numerous other systems for sharing stuff proved to be simpler and more reliable." Nearby Share was officially released for devices running

Android Marshmallow Android Marshmallow ( codenamed Android M during development) is the sixth major version of the Android operating system developed by Google, being the successor to Android Lollipop. It was announced at Google I/O on May 28, 2015, and released ...

and later on August 4, 2020. The program worked much like Apple's

AirDrop An airdrop is a type of airlift in which items including weapons, equipment, humanitarian aid or leaflets are delivered by military or civilian aircraft without their landing. Developed during World War II to resupply otherwise inaccessible tr ...

, allowing users to select "Nearby Share" on the share menu and then to wait for a nearby phone to appear. In June 2021 with the rollout of

91, Nearby Share was released for ChromeOS with the same features and options as the Android version. During CES 2022, Google announced Nearby Share for

. On March 31, 2023, the beta version of the Nearby Share App was released for Windows PCs allowing cross-platform file transfers. In January 2024, Google and Samsung announced that Nearby Share and

Quick Share Quick Share is a wireless peer-to-peer data transfer utility for Android, Windows and ChromeOS. Quick Share utilizes Bluetooth and Wi-Fi Direct to send files to nearby devices, but it could also send to any other device anywhere using the Samsung ...

would merge into one unified app, under the name Quick Share.

Usage

On Android and ChromeOS, Nearby Share is enabled by going to Connected Devices > Connection preferences > Nearby Share (or Google > Devices & sharing > Nearby Share) in the settings app and enabling "Use Nearby Share." On Windows, Nearby Share is downloaded from android.com. Once the setup program is done installing Nearby Share, or from the Nearby Share settings menu Android, the user will be able to choose who is able to see their device. The available options are: * Everyone * Contacts * Your devices * Hidden When sharing a file via Nearby Share, the user will be presented with a list of available devices to share with. Choosing a device from the list sends a prompt to the recipient that requires them to confirm the transfer. When sharing amongst devices linked to the same Google Account, it is not required to wake the receiving devices or confirm the file transmission. Nearby Share allows for the sharing of files and links, such as images, videos, text, contact info, directions, YouTube videos, and other data. It uses

Bluetooth Low Energy Bluetooth Low Energy (Bluetooth LE, colloquially BLE, formerly marketed as Bluetooth Smart) is a wireless personal area network technology designed and marketed by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (Bluetooth SIG) aimed at novel applications ...

WebRTC WebRTC (Web Real-Time Communication) is a free and open-source project providing web browsers and mobile applications with real-time communication (RTC) via application programming interfaces (APIs). It allows audio and video communication and ...

, and peer-to-peer Wi-Fi to share content. It can be configured to only share content offline, restricting it to Bluetooth only operation.

Availability

Nearby Share is available on Android 6 and later, ChromeOS 91 and later, and Windows 10 and later. On Windows, Nearby Share must be installed manually, as opposed to its implementation on Android and ChromeOS, where it is a part of the operating system and does not need to be installed separately. Windows devices must have both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi to be able to run Nearby Share. Windows on

ARM In human anatomy, the arm refers to the upper limb in common usage, although academically the term specifically means the upper arm between the glenohumeral joint (shoulder joint) and the elbow joint. The distal part of the upper limb between ...

devices are not supported.

References

External links

Windows app
{{Google LLC Android (operating system) Google Chrome File transfer protocols Bluetooth

History

Usage

Availability

See also

References

External links