Hands-on with 'Nearby Sharing': Is this the AirDrop for Android?

shravan kumar

Friday, 24 July 2020

Hands-on with 'Nearby Sharing': Is this the AirDrop for Android?

Google recently rolled an airdrop like feature for Android. Which is beings called as 'nearby share'. Apple has its own content sharing feature for ages which got  popular around the world as 'airdrop'. It was so instant and user-friendly. It worked simultaneously around almost all the devices in the platform like macs, iPhones,iPads and more. Just like iMessages, airplay and carplay Airdrop was a beacon for apple that held users stick to the ecosystem. Thats why apple users doesn't tend to switch to other platforms.

But that wasn't the thing when it comes to Android. Previously Android oficially had 'Bluetooth sharing' and NFC sharing by bringing the devices together known as 'android beam' which pretty much worked similar to Bluetooth sharing. They were super slow. Later third party android apps like shareit,xender and superbeam were made available using wifi to share content which is superior to previous sharing technologies. 

This solved the issue to some extent.but the security was a major flaw in them. though the transfer speeds were fast, lack of security made them  incomple and there was no perfect service that could enhance the sharing experience on android. Android felt the same thing as we do and started developing a new sharing service and came up with 'fast share' before an year which was mostly up to developers which was eventually named as 'nearby share' during rollout

To enable 'nearby share' on our devices the play services are supposed to be upto date on beta version. If you are not aware beta programme.you can join beta prorgramme of Google Play services by clicking here. After updating play services youbhave to head to the quick settings panel and enable 'nearby share' as shown in the pictures.

This lets the user to recevie files from their homescreen. one can share files just by taping on the share button on the file and selecting nearby share as the sharing option. the file will be shared instantly.

Comparing to those previous applications its flawless, secure and easy to use.out of all its a system feature baked in to the operating system rather than a third party app. As its a first version there are new updtes to be rolled out and improve its usability. So it looks like Android gave its best to compete apples 'airdrop'.