Two years ago Google updated all devices running Android 6.0 or above to bring us “Share with nearby”its alternative to the popular Apple AirDrop so Android users can also share files between nearby devices in a simple, fast way and without the need to use third-party applications.
Share Nearby oh Share with nearby uses our location and Bluetooth Low Energy and WiFi connections to manage file transfer between nearby devices, so we only have to worry about selecting the contacts we want to share the files with and Android will take care of choosing the best connection for this, but before we need to have Share with Nearby enabled and properly configuredas we will see below.
How to enable Nearby Sharing
To activate the “Google AirDrop” we have to get into settings from our Android device, enter the section of Google
There we must activate the option Use Nearby Sharing. Also, it is recommended that for our contacts to locate us easily, we verify our phone number, in addition to putting the name that we want to appear when someone searches for nearby devices.
Share with nearby It usually shares the files by Bluetooth or WiFi depending on the file size, but sometimes if the files are very small, it can use the data network. In the section Data We can say that the data is never used to share files, by selecting that Wi-Fi is always used or that it does not use the Internet directly and pulls Bluetooth or Wi-Fi.
The visibility of nearby sharing
It is very important to set the visibility of our device so that only the people we want can send us files. This is configured from the ‘Device visibility’ section and offers us three types of visibility:
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All: Anyone nearby will be able to share files with you. This type of visibility gives us two options: temporarily use Everyone mode
(it deactivates automatically after a few minutes) or the option Always enable Everyone mode so that we can always receive requests. -
contacts: Here, only your close contacts will be able to share files with you. You can put your device visible to all contacts or select contacts who can send you files.
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Hidden: No one will be able to detect your device to send you close until you turn your device’s visibility back on.
You can also set nearby share visibility from the quick settings bar. There we can add the “Share with nearby” switch to quickly adjust the visibility of the device.
How to share files with Nearby Sharing
Sharing a file with nearby devices is easy. Just select any file and in the “Share…” option of our favorite app, find and select the option Share with nearby
Share with nearby it will start searching for nearby devices that are within a few meters. We touch the devices to which we want to send the file(s) and we only have to wait for these people to accept the file transfer to complete the process. Google Nearby Share allows us to share files with up to four people at a time on Android devices and Chromebooks.
How to Receive Files with Nearby Sharing
When someone close to you wishes to share a file, we may receive a notification to enable visibility from our device if we have hidden it or if this contact is not in our contacts. This notification can be disabled from Settings > Google > Devices & sharing > Share with nearby > Show notification.
If we have enabled visibility, a window will notify us that someone wants to share a file or multiple files with us, showing a PIN so that we can check with the other person that these are the correct devices, with which we only have to accept or reject. If we accept, once the file has been received, the download manager will be opened or displayed if we have received several files at once.
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