Google has been working on an AirDrop-like alternative file sharing service for Android for quite a while now. Despite multiple leaks, the company is yet to announce its new local file sharing service. This has led to a number of Android OEMs like Samsung, OPPO, OnePlus, Realme, Xiaomi, and others to come up with their own fast file-sharing protocol. However, it looks like Google"s file sharing service will have a key advantage over other such protocols: it will work with PCs running Windows, macOS, Linux, and even Chrome OS.
While Google"s file sharing service was initially referred to as Fast Share, it was eventually renamed to Nearby Share in the later stages of its development process. As per some recent commits in Chromium Gerrit, Nearby Share will work on all PCs with Chrome installed. The "Nearby Share" option is already showing up in Chromebooks which further hints at Google using Chrome to bring Nearby Share to more than just Android devices.
Nearby Sharing shows up in #chromebook settings pic.twitter.com/Z2V5UrgPT4
— Dinsan (@_dinsan) June 19, 2020
Previous leaks have indicated that Nearby Share will be rolled out to Android devices via a Google Play Services update which should allow Google to bring this feature to almost all Android devices within a short period of time. However, there"s no word on when Google intends to roll out Nearby Share as it still seems to be under development.
Source: XDA Developers