After years of pestering, Google has finally brought an Airdrop alternative on Android. The feature is called Nearby Share and it will be available on devices running Android 6 (Marshmallow) and above. The feature utilizes Google Play Services to seamlessly connect to nearby devices which is awesome as there will be no tiresome tethering process. That said, the sought-after feature has not been widely rolled out as it requires a server-side update from Google’s end. In this article, we are going to show you how to enable and use Nearby Share on Android devices. So with that in mind, let’s now go through the tutorial without any delay.
Since Google has officially launched Nearby Share on Android, you don’t need to enroll in Google Play Services Beta or tweak other settings to get the feature. All you have to do is wait for Google to turn on the switch from its server-side to enable Nearby Share on your device. Here is how you can find out if Nearby Share is enabled on your device.
- Now, scroll down and check if Nearby Share tile is available there. If so, it means that the feature has been enabled on your device. Now, drag it to the quick settings panel.
- My Experience with Nearby Share on Android
In my experience, the pairing process was a bit slow. I don’t know if it was because the receiver device was Mi A1 running Android 9. Apart from that, the transfer speed was low — around 3.7mbps — which is very disappointing. But the most frustrating part about Nearby Share on Android is that the sender device must be connected to a WiFi network (the receiver device can be offline), ruling out seamless sharing while you are on the go.
My Experience with Nearby Share on Android
So that is how you can enable and use Nearby Share feature on Android. We all know that Google rolls out new features at a glacial pace so Nearby Share is yet to hit even a tiny fraction of Android devices. But then, there is no way out other than to wait.
