Nearby Share is Google’s answer to Apple’s Airdrop technology. It allows people to quickly and easily share files between other Android devices. The company first unveiled this in Android 9 Pie, and it’s been a staple for the platform ever since. Most Android devices should already be compatible with this technology. When your phone activates Nearby Share, it will search for other Android devices with Nearby Share enabled. The receiving device will get a notification that another phone is using Nearby Share. The receiving device will then choose to accept the file, and the transfer will immediately begin.
Google is bringing Material You to Nearby Share
In all honesty, people weren’t exactly clamoring to get Material You on Nearby Share, but it’s a nice addition. It helps unify Android’s aesthetic. As with any Material You make over, you’ll see the flat UI elements get a rounded appearance. With the update, we see the item you’re trying to share housed within a rounded rectangular button. The “looking for nearby devices” text will sit below the item in empty space rather than in a lane. What’s perhaps the most notable difference is the new set of animations added. Behind your Google account profile picture, you will see animations of shapes eliminating outward. Some of the shapes are reminiscent of app icon shapes in stock Android. Other shapes include a round pentagon, a rounded star, and a rounded letter A.
This is not available to the public yet
This was discovered in an APK deep-dive performed by 9To5Google, has such, you’ll want to take this with a grain of salt. The Material You design aesthetic in Nearby Share is hidden within the app’s code. This means that Google can change it or take it out at any point before release.
