Nearby Share’s official Windows launch adds some new features

As part of Wednesday’s launch, Google says Nearby Share now has “improved performance” and a few new features: The tool now shows the estimated time a file transfer will finish and an image preview in device notifications. Google also says it’s partnering with companies like HP to “include the Nearby Share app on select Windows PCs,” which makes it sound to me like Nearby Share will come preinstalled on those select devices at some point.

Google first launched Nearby Share to let you transfer files between Android devices in 2020, and even then, the feature felt like a major catch-up move; Apple released AirDrop for iOS and macOS in 2011. Google has also brought Nearby Share to ChromeOS to make it easier to share files between Android devices and Chromebooks.