Google addresses Airdrop envy with Nearby Share for Windows

Windows PC and Android mobile device users have long been forced to look on in envy as Mac users easily transfer files with iPhones and iPads. Google and Microsoft have made major strides to bring that same functionality to Windows and Android users, first with the Phone Link - a Microsoft service also available for iPhone - and now Android Nearby Share on Windows.

By Lindsey Schutters

20 Jul 2023

Android Nearby Share comes to Windows. Source: Google

Nearby Share for Windows is a standalone app that was first made available for beta testing in March 2023 and has now become available to all Windows 10 and 11 users running 64-bit architecture – Microsoft ended official support for 32-bit builds of Windows with the Windows 10 version 2004 in 2020, so there should be no compatibility issues if you have received Windows updates since then.

Google addresses Airdrop envy with Nearby Share for Windows

“Today marks the official launch of Nearby Share with Windows, offering improved performance and new functionality that can make it even easier for you to share content and stay productive,” wrote Android group project manager Ronald Ho in the official blog post announcement.

“To make sharing between Android devices and PCs even more seamless, we’re working with partners like HP to include the Nearby Share app on select Windows PCs, such as the HP Dragonfly Pro. We’ll continue to work on Nearby Share for Windows, adding new functionality and listening to your feedback.”

The public app now also includes new functionality which will show an estimated time for file transfer completion and an image preview in the notification centre so users can check if the correct image is being transferred.

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This announcement now expands the Google peer-to-peer file transfer functionality to more users since Nearby Share was launched in 2020 with support for ChromeOS.