Nearby Sharing, or Share With Nearby, has been with us for a few years now, but Android AirDrop still has some things to improve. An ongoing improvement is to use a QR code to connect two mobiles in a transfer.
The beauty of Nearby Sharing is that you can easily send files to nearby devices, but it’s not always that simple. By having various privacy options, we may sometimes have problems seeing the device to which you want to send the file. This will no longer be an obstacle with a new shipping method that will connect the two mobiles with a QR code.
QR code to login
Google launched Share with Nearby in 2020 as an agnostic way to send files between nearby phones, without needing to use a specific app. Since then, Nearby Sharing has been integrated into virtually all Android phones through Google Play Services.
What Share with Nearby does is basically easily connect the two devices together using the best wireless technology available (Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, UWB, or WebRTC). On a mobile, you choose to send something and nearby mobiles should appear in the list of possible destinations. The problem is that they don’t always show up..
If you’ve tried sending something with Nearby Share to before and the device you wanted to send something to never appeared in the list, Google is working on a more manual alternative, but it will be useful in several cases. : pair devices with a QR code
Screenshots of AssembleDebug
This will show us a QR code to be scanned on the destination mobile, with any application. The QR code opens a web link that will open Nearby Share on our mobile with the pairing information embedded, so the method overrides the mobile selection method in the list. The transfer itself is always done with the best technology available, usually Bluetooth or Wi-Fi.
Sending files using this QR code will help us for two purposes: firstly, if the destination mobile does not appear for some reason, either by privacy settings restricted to “my contacts” or “nobody” or due to a technical problem; Also, it will help us in the opposite case, if we are in a place with many active mobiles and we do not know to which we want to send the file.
For now, send files with Nearby Share using a QR code is not yet active for users, but hidden in Google Play Services. Considering that it already seems to be functional, it would be normal for Google to announce and activate it soon.
Pictures | @AssembleDebug
Through | Android Authority
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