Starting with Android Marshmallow (version 6.x), Google introduced a new feature called “Nearby Share”. Using this feature we can wirelessly share our files from an Android smartphone. Any two devices, on which “Nearby Share” has been enabled, can share data over the WiFi and Bluetooth. On most of the Android smartphones, this feature can be enabled by pulling down the quick settings.
Now “Nearby Share” is also available for the Windows laptop/desktop computers. Google has released “Nearby Devices” software for the Windows PC. After installing this software on your PC, you can start sharing your files between Windows and the Android devices easily.
After installing it on your Windows, you have to configure some basic settings. For example, you have to choose a name for your Windows PC which would be visible to the other devices. In the following screenshot we have selected “Tunafish” as the device name.
You can change the sending and receiving settings for this application. We can choose whether to send or receive the files to everyone, to your contacts only, to only your devices, or to no one. The settings for both the sending and receiving the files are separate and we can configure them separately.
For this to work, your Windows PC must have WiFi and Bluetooth both enabled. The Windows PC and the Android smartphones should both be connected to the same WiFi network for this to work.
In order to share the files using “Nearby Share” function from an Android smartphone, we can launch the File Manager app, select the files to be shared and then choose “Nearby Share”. When you see your Windows PC, you can select it and the files will appear on your Windows PC. The transfer of data from Windows PC to Android smartphone is also similar.
You can download Google Nearby Share for Windows from https://android.com/better-together/nearby-share-app/.