After years of hassle, Google has finally brought an Android Airdrop alternative. The feature is called Close Share and it will be available on devices with Android 6 (Marshmallow) and higher. The feature uses Google Play services to seamlessly connect to nearby devices, which is awesome as there won't be a tedious pinning process. That being said, the requested feature has not been widely implemented as it requires a server-side update by Google. In this article, we will show you how to enable and use nearby share on Android devices. So with that in mind, now let's go through the tutorial without delay.

Enable and Use Nearby Share on Android

Since Google officially launched close sharing on Android, you don't need to sign up for the beta version of Google Play Services or change other settings to get the feature. All you have to do is wait for Google to flip the switch from the server side to enable Close Share on your device. Here's how you can find out if Nearby Share is enabled on your device. 

Note: The feature will be implemented on all smartphones running Android 6 (Marshmallow) and above. Note that you must turn on Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and location services to use Nearby Share.

1. First of all, to find Nearby Share availability on your Android device, pull down the quick settings panel and tap on the edit icon.
2. 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.
3. Alternatively, you can open Settings -> Google -> Device Connections. If the feature is enabled on your device then Nearby Share will appear here. Also, you can check under Settings -> Bluetooth and Device Connection.
4. Now that you have confirmed the feature availability, you are good to go. Simply tap on the Nearby Share tile in the Quick Settings panel and a setup wizard will open up. Here, tap on “Turn on“.

5. Nearby Share will now show all the nearby devices that have got this feature. You can tap on a nearby contact and send a file just like that.

Note: If it doesn't show any nearby devices, don't worry, continue to the next step. You can send files through the shared sheets menu that I mentioned below.

6. If you want to customize Nearby Share then tap on your profile icon at the top-right corner. Here, you can select your device visibility by choosing all or some contacts. Next, you can change your device name and also modify how you want the data transfer to take place. Keep in mind, you can’t share files unless you save the nearby user as your contact.

7. Apart from that, you can transfer files using Nearby Share directly from apps too. Open any app, for instance, the Files app, and select a file. Now, tap on the share button and the share sheet menu will open up. Here, you will find the “Nearby Share” option.
8. Tap on it and then select the nearby device. The receiver will get a prompt. Tap on “Accept” and the file will start getting transferred without a time-consuming tethering process. So that is how you can use the Nearby Share feature on your Android device.
An article by Munna Suprathik