Poll: Have you used Nearby Share before?

One advantage Apple devices had over Android for a long time was the AirDrop file sharing feature, offering a seamless local file-sharing experience compared to most other protocols. Google stepped up in 2020 with the Nearby Share feature, offering no-frills local file-sharing too.

Now that it’s been available for a while, we want to know whether you’ve used Nearby Share. You can answer this question via our poll below and leave a comment if you’ve got more to share on the topic.

Nearby Share is a pretty seamless local file-sharing feature, using Bluetooth, Bluetooth LE, WebRTC, or Wi-Fi Direct to transfer files to another device. All you need to do is visit the specific file’s share menu and choose Nearby Share to kick things off. Alternatively, you can enable Nearby Share from the quick settings menu or via Google’s Files app.

Best of all, the feature isn’t restricted to more recent Android versions as it actually supports Android 6.0 and higher. So chances are good that even your five-year-old phone can take advantage of this option.

Then again, internet connectivity is pervasive in many countries, meaning that simply sending a file via a cloud service or instant messenger app might be convenient for some. Nearby Share doesn’t support Apple devices either, although it works with Chromebooks.

So have you used the feature before? Give us your answer via the above poll.