Window’s Share Nearby Device IS NOT the same as Android Nearby Share

If you are searching for a perfect way to share files between your PC and your Android do NOT get confused between Google’s Nearby Share in android and Microsoft’s Windows Share Nearby Device. They don’t speak the same discovery protocol, meaning you can’t discover android phones Nearby Share (when it turned on) from Windows or vice versa. They are not the same thing and you can give up trying hard to make it work.

That said, there are hopes we get one of them working at least with the help of a newer version of Chrome. At one point Canary version of Chrome has supports for Android’s Nearby Share, but it has since been removed from all Chrome flags. So currently we don’t have any Android Nearby Share over to Chrome on Windows, this could change as the year goes on. Since Google just introduced Nearby Share in 2020. We will on the lookout for more integrations whether is via Chrome or Windows or Chrome OS.

Microsoft’s Windows Share > Nearby Device released much earlier than Google’s and it only works between compatible Windows 10 devices (running version 1803 or higher). They both named very similar and do not get your hopes high when you see Nearby on both Android and PC and would think they are the same thing.

Bottom line is, as both platforms are created by two competing tech giants having a tight integration between the two eco-system isn’t that high on either of their roadmaps. Unlike Apple’s AirDrop which is probably the best feature if you live in Apple’s hardware ecosystem, unfortunately as of 2021 we are yet to have a similar protocol or methods to share files between your android phone and your PC.

If you are interested in some of the different methods to share files between the two platforms check out the Three Different Methods to Two-Way Transfer Photos Wirelessly from Android to PC. There we covered all the possible ways to have photos and videos transfer between the two.