Google's Nearby Share is now available for Windows

When the Nearby Share file sharing feature was in the early stages of development, we found pieces of evidence that suggested besides Android smartphones, Google might bring the feature to PC, Mac, Linux, and ChromeOS. Google’s AirDrop competitor that’s ‘Nearby Share’ has been available for select Android smartphones via Play Services beta for months, and the company recently added the feature to ChromeOS. And now, Google is bringing the feature to Windows via the Chrome browser.

For those who are not familiar with the feature, Google’s Nearby Share is a feature that allows you to send any file to other devices that support Google’s file-sharing feature. Both the devices must have Bluetooth enabled in order for the feature to transfer a file.

Windows users can now use Google’s new file sharing feature and in order to do that, you’ll need to install Chrome Canary or Dev. Since the feature is available behind a flag, you’ll need to visit chrome://nearby page and then enable the Nearby Sharing flag, after which you’ll need to restart the browser.

Nearby Share is expected to be available for every Android smartphone running Android 6+ next month, though we don’t know the exact date. At this moment, you can try the feature in ChromeOS, Windows, and select Android smartphones, but we also expect the feature to be available for Mac and Linux users via the Chrome browser soon.

via Techdows