‘Nearby Share’ feature starts rolling out to more users after limited test

It appears Google’s upcoming ‘Nearby Share‘ feature may soon roll out to more users.

Nearby Share is an AirDrop-like feature that will let Android users easily share content like files, photos and more through a wireless connection. Google has been working on Nearby Share for some time, but the feature recently began rolling out in a limited test to those running the Play Service beta.

Unfortunately, Play Services is something many people don’t feel comfortable running in beta. Even for me, who has the beta version of most of Google’s apps on my phone, Play Services is a bit much. That app has a deep-reaching impact on much of the Android OS, so I’m hesitant to run the beta in case it messes up something important.

That said, Nearby Share appears to be going live for some users who aren’t on the Play Services beta. Android Police reports that several people received Nearby Share on the stable version of Play Services.

Specifically, users on Play Services version 20.24.13 have gotten Nearby Share. Interestingly, my phone is running Play Services 20.24.14 but doesn’t have the feature. There’s likely a server-side switch that needs to take place as well.

Further, Android Police reports that most users claim the feature went live in the last 24 hours. Further, many users with the feature are also running Android 11 Beta 2.

While that last part could be a coincidence, it wouldn’t surprise me if Google planned to use the Android 11 betas to test Nearby Share before a wider release. Although Nearby Share will work with Android 6.0 Marshmallow and up, Google may plan to debut Nearby Share with Android 11 when it launches later this year before bringing it to users on older versions of Android.

Plus, Nearby Share is set to arrive on Chrome — meaning it will work across Chrome OS, Windows, macOS and Linux.

Source: Android Police