Google takes crucial step to improve Android-Windows integration

Laptop

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

We all can agree that the quality of integration between Apple's smartphones, tablets, watches, and computers is far better than that of Android's integration with Android TVs and ChromeOS/Windows computers. However, Google wants to fix that situation and has taken an important step in that direction.

Nearby Share For Windows brings easy file transfers between Android and Windows

Google announced at CES 2023 earlier this year that it would bring Android's Nearby Share feature to Microsoft's Windows operating system. Today, the company has launched the first beta version of Nearby Share For Windows. You can now download the new app from the official website and install it on a desktop or laptop PC running Windows 10 or Windows 11. Currently, the new app is incompatible with laptops using ARM-based processors.

To work properly, the Nearby Share For Windows app would need a computer with Bluetooth LE and Wi-Fi. However, computers connected to the internet via a LAN cable should work as well. It lets you quickly share images, videos, documents, audio files, and other files from your computer to your smartphone and vice versa.

Designed using Google's Material 3 UI theme, Nearby Share For Windows offers three options for privacy. You can select from three privacy options: No One, Your Devices, Everyone, and Contacts. A user would need to log into their Google account to use this feature on their Windows 10/11-powered PC.

Google had also promised to bring Fast Pair to Windows, but that feature hasn't made it to the Windows operating system yet. Samsung Galaxy Book users, however, have been enjoying an alternative feature called Quick Share for a few years now. It remains to be seen how many people would use Nearby Share For Windows instead of Samsung's Quick Share.

Asif Iqbal Shaik - Senior Editor

[email protected]

First Samsung device: T100

Asif is a computer engineer turned technology journalist. He has been using Samsung phones since 2004, and his current smartphone is the Galaxy S21 Ultra. He loves headphones, mechanical keyboards, and PC hardware. When not writing about technology, he likes watching crime and science fiction movies and TV shows.

Laptop Phone Google Microsoft Nearby Share Windows 10 Windows 11

samsung galaxy watch wear os google gemini

Google takes crucial step to improve Android-Windows integration

Nearby Share For Windows brings easy file transfers between Android and Windows

Asif Iqbal Shaik - Senior Editor

[email protected]

First Samsung device: T100

You might also like

Google starts rolling out Gemini to Samsung Galaxy Watches

Samsung will replace OneDrive sync on TVs with Google Photos integration

Gemini will soon start arriving on Android Auto on your Galaxy phone

Galaxy Watches could get design improvements in Gmail, Google Keep