how to nearby share from phone to laptop or pcHow to nearby share from phone to laptop or PC – For old timers, perhaps the easiest and most obvious way to file transfer between your mobile device to your computer is through a cable transfer— usually by using your charging cables. However, nowadays there have been far easier methods to do that without the need for a cable (and no, not through Bluetooth either, though, technically it still uses Bluetooth as a way to execute them) but through Google nearby share.
Nearby sharing is one of the newer Google, specifically Android, features that lets users transfer data between devices by utilising either Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. In the Apple ecosystem, the equivalent of Google’s Nearby Share is Apple’s AirDrop.
What makes Nearby Share different from AirDrop
While both share basically the same functions which is to transfer files and documents between your mobile device to other devices and vice versa without the need for physical cables, the Google nearby share has a key feature that differs them from Apple’s counterpart; the ability to transfer between different platforms, even to MacOS devices.
This means that with near by share near.by, you can share files from your Android device to a nearby share PC through Windows nearby sharing, from Windows nearby sharing Mac or vice versa and so on and so forth. Eliminating the issue of being stuck in just one ecosystem and having to be fully committed to one of them.
How to Nearby Share From Android to Windows, to Mac, and vice versa
While nearby share works on Windows, unfortunately, nearby share for PC Windows 7 might not be possible due to it being an “aged operating system”. However, Windows 10 nearby sharing Android or from 11 is easily possible thanks to Microsoft embedding the feature as the OS’ built-in feature.
To do that, first and foremost make sure your Android phone is connected to Wi-Fi with Bluetooth active as well as your computer is running with Windows 10 or 11 then follow these steps:
- Press the Windows icon in the taskbar and search “nearby share” then select “Nearby share settings”
- Configure which method of nearby sharing you prefer; only to your selected device or to everyone nearby. The default option is set to off.
- Open the New Nearby Share App page here to download Nearby Share PC download with the executable called “BetterTogetherSetup.exe” and follow the guide to set them up properly such as signing up to your Google account which is recommended.
- Once everything is set up, select files or pictures from your Android device and tap “share”.
- In the “share” pop-up, select “Nearby” and it should show your Windows device as its destination.
- For Windows to Android transfer, open the “Nearby Share from Google” application that you just installed, drag and drop the files that you want to transfer then you should see the available destination of your Android device.
Transferring files to Mac and the other way around follows the same exact method. However, instead of Google’s official Nearby Share app, it needs “NearDrop”. The method is as follows:
- Download NearDrop through this GitHub page and extract its .zip content to the Applications folder on your Mac.
- You might be greeted by a warning that detects the app as malicious software. This is because Apple detects non-verified third-party apps as a threat even though it’s harmless.
- To proceed, open System Settings, then pick Privacy & Security and click Open Anyway for the “NearDrop was blocked from use” section. You need to enter your Mac password or TouchID for verification purposes.
- When you first launch the app, you need to grant access for the NearDrop to scan for devices in your network and send you notifications.
- Once everything is set up properly, you should be able to use them as normal. Do note that due to it being an unsupported feature in nature, your device will always be visible to other Android devices until you close the app.
Bottom line
With Google’s Nearby Share, it lets you share files between your Android devices to others including devices that run with MacOS. The Nearby for PC feature is now available by default to Windows 10 and 11 however you still need to download the required application to transfer back which can be seen in our tutorial steps.
Those who are looking for how to share files over Bluetooth in Windows site microsoft.com might also want to try Nearby Share. This is because in essence it basically accomplishes the same goal.
