Google’s Nearby Share is finally available for Windows in beta, and it works pretty well

What you need to know

• Google has previously hinted that Nearby Share will be coming to Windows PCs.
• You can download a beta version of the app to your Windows device.
• This app supports sending and receiving files between PC and Android smartphone.

Android and Windows are on pretty good terms, and in some ways even better than Android and ChromeOS. Making another of her Android tools available to Windows users furthered that relationship.

As 9to5Google pointed out, more than a year after it was first unveiled at CES 2022, Google has released a new Nearby Share app for Windows. This app is currently in beta and can be downloaded from android.com on supported devices.

The download will ask you to sign in to your Google account from your PC browser, but you can also use it without an account. When signing in, ideally you’ll be signing in with the same account you use on your Android phone. Once signed in, you can choose how your PC appears to other devices and change your device visibility.

Similar to Android’s Nearby Share, you can choose to make your PC visible to everyone, contacts, devices only, or no one. Finally, once Nearby Share is set up, you’ll see a window where you can start dropping files to send or receive to other devices.

I played around with this app a bit and I have to say it works exactly as I thought it would. Drop a file on the window and the app quickly recognizes your phone and vice versa. Sending files is very fast and receiving works just as well. Also, you don’t have to keep the Nearby Share app open on your PC for your phone to recognize it. This is very convenient.

However, there are some requirements to make it work. The app is intended for devices running 64-bit Windows 10 or Windows 11, but ARM-based devices don’t seem to be supported. This is a bummer for those with Windows-based laptops with Snapdragon processors. This is a standard prerequisite for Near Buy Share to work.