Google’s Nearby Share feature debuted on Android phones and tablets as a way to quickly send files and apps from one Android device to another. Eventually Google brought Nearby Share to Chromebooks as well. And now the company has launched a public beat of Nearby Share for Windows.
Available for Windows 10 or later, the app makes it easy to transfer files between your Android phone or tablet and Windows PC.
Once you install the Windows app you’ll be asked to sign in with your Google account and choose who can send you files (everybody, nobody, just people in your contact list, or just devices logged into your account).
Then you can drag and drop files or folders into the app to share them with your Android devices. Or you can use the Nearby Share option from your Android device’s share menu to send files to your PC.
I took the app for a spin and found that it took just a few seconds to wirelessly transfer a PDF from my phone to my computer. There was no need to send it as an email attachment, upload it to cloud storage, or save to a network share drive first.
While Nearby Share for Windows needs to be running in order to work, by default it’s set to launch and run in the background when you start Windows. So unless you remove it from your startup apps, once installed you shouldn’t have to go out of your way to open the Windows app in order to receive files from an Android device (which is why it’s helpful that you can configure who’s allowed to send you files).
In a nutshell, Nearby Share is Google’s answer to Apple’s AirDrop. But it’s hardly the first Android-to-PC file transfer app around. Microsoft’s Phone Link offers similar functionality, as do third-party apps like AirDroid.
What makes Nearby Share for Windows different is that if you have a recent Android phone or tablet, you won’t need to install any new apps on your mobile device, because Nearby Share is built-in. You do still need to install the Windows app though.
For now, Google says that Nearby Share for Windows lets you transfer files to and from Android devices. But in the future the company plans to add support for other platforms, possibly including ChromeOS or Wear OS.
via Google
Cool, but doesn’t DropBox accomplish the same thing?
Should mention Nearby Share requires bluetooth.
“What makes Nearby Share for Windows different is that if you have a recent Android phone or tablet, you won’t need to install any new apps on your mobile device, because Nearby Share is built-in”
Actually you don’t need to install anything in recent Galaxy phones because “Link to Windows” is pre-installed (and it’s not possible to uninstall it).
Astounding
So 10 years later Windows finally has something that works a bit like KDE Connect for Linux. I have had so much use for that piece of software over the years. Can really recommend, also to send files between computers in addition to between a phone and a computer.
KDE Connect doesn’t need you to sign into a Google account either. 🙂
This is great news for people without a samba share.
Personally I just run an FTP server on the phone with FileManager+ and connect the PC with Filezilla.
Which is still about as complex as creating a shared folder on the PC and mounting with android samba client. And in either case, if the phone and laptop aren’t connected to the same LAN, you’ll probably need to turn the hotspot on the phone.
Not that any of this is HARD mind you, but when you’re trying to send files to people in the same room as you it’ll still try their patience when they can tap the “nearby share” button, tap an item on a short list of devices, and start messing around with the files, and they’re probably not going to accept “do you really want google knowing what we were sending each other here” as a reason to do things your way instead of what google told them was the “normal” way.