What you need to know
- Nearby Share for Windows allows you to transfer photos, files, and videos between Android devices and your PC.
- The app is now generally available following a beta period that started in March.
- Nearby Share is a popular feature for Android phones that has been around for years.
Google's Nearby Share is a popular Android feature that makes it easy to transfer files, photos, and videos between supported devices. Until recently, you had to have an Android phone, Android tablet, or Chromebook to use the feature. That changes with the rollout of Nearby Share for Windows.
Google has been testing Nearby Share for Windows in beta since March, but it is now generally available for anyone to download. 1.7 million people tested the app in beta, according to Google, which indicates strong interest in it. During beta testing, over 50 million files were transferred between PCs and Android devices.
In addition to coming out of beta, Nearby Share has picked up some new features on PC:
- We’ve added the estimated time for file transfers to be completed. This can be helpful when you’re sending large files like videos or entire folders and want to see how quickly it will be shared.
- There is also now an image preview within device notifications to help you confirm that the correct file is being shared.
Nearby Share for Windows works on a variety of PCs and can be installed by anyone, but Google will make it a bit easier to access by having it preinstalled on specific computers. The HP Dragonfly Pro is among the PCs that will ship with Nearby Share on Windows. Google alluded to other devices coming bundled with the app, but it did not provide any specifics.
While Nearby Share is handy, it's far from the only app to connect Windows PCs and Android devices. Make sure to check out our guide comparing Google Nearby Share, Phone Link, Intel Unison, HP QuickDrop, and Edge Drop.
