Nearby Sharing, Android’s fast file-sharing system is starting to reach a small group of beta users, as confirmed by Google. This function, which comes to be something like ‘the Android AirDrop’, will serve to transfer files between two nearby Android devices.
Android Police has had access to the beta, so we already have images and details about its operation with all kinds of details. As we have anticipated, the test is available only for a small group of users, so even though you are in the Play Services beta program, the service may not have reached you, as it is in our case.
How Nearby Sharing works
Nearby Sharing is integrated directly into Android, as another function to share content. At the time of giving the share menu, we will see the ‘Nearby’ option, something that will allow us to send said file to someone who also has the function activated. Nearby Share works with both photos and videos, as well as APK, PDF, tweets and all kinds of links.
Within Nearby Share’s own settings we can configure the device name, the visibility it will have and the main mechanism through which it will share the data. At the visibility level, we can configure that all contacts see us, have it hidden or hide it only from certain contacts. That is, we can make a blacklist with contacts who will not be able to see us in Nearby Share.
Nearby Sharing can work without a network connection. We can configure how it shares the data in the settings themselves
Regarding the data, we can choose if it will use an internet connection to complete the files or if we want it to share the files without any type of network connection.
At the interface level, Nearby Share is practically a carbon copy of AirDrop. We have a contact detection interface and, in case we are the one who is going to receive the file, an interface to confirm that we want to receive it. Although Android Police has been tested on mobile, much of the interest and need for Nearby Sharing is that it will be compatible with Windows, Mac, Linux and ChromeOS, according to leaks. This will really make it an alternative to AirDrop, allowing files to be sent to both mobile phones and PCs in a matter of a very short time.