Google’s take on AirDrop-like file sharing service – Nearby Sharing is rumored to be in the works for quite a while now and it was even enabled on the Pixel 4 and Pixel 2 XL by XDA this January. A new report from Chrome Unboxed sheds light on the availability of the feature in Chromebooks.
Until now, there was no mention of Nearby Sharing for Chromebooks, which was strange as AirDrop is available on Macs and Google would strive to achieve the same seamless experience across its ecosystem of devices. According to a new commit spotted by Chrome Unboxed on Chromium Gerrit, the software giant is working to add a feature flag for Nearby Sharing for Chrome OS.
“[Nearby] Added the feature flag for Nearby Sharing. This flag can be used to enable or disable Nearby Sharing”, reads the commit. The commit got merged and the flag should hopefully show up in the next Canary release of Chrome OS.
In an ideal scenario, you will be able to enable Nearby Sharing from the quick settings toggles and access it from the Share sheet on your Pixel device, choose your nearby Chromebook from the list of visible devices, and share it right away with no extra hassle or complications involved in the process.
We could expect Google to debut Nearby Sharing for Chromebooks with its next PixelBook alongside the Pixel 5 series. Until then, we have the tried-and-tested alternative Snapdrop, which according to Arjun from our team, is the fastest way for transferring files across devices and platforms.
