Nearby Share's official Windows launch adds some new features

Google is officially launching Nearby Share for Windows, the company's AirDrop-like tool that lets you send things like documents and photos between your Android device and PC. The company first released the app for Windows in beta earlier this year.

As part of Wednesday's launch, Google says Nearby Share now has "improved performance" and a few new features: The tool now shows the estimated time a file transfer will finish and there's an image preview in device notifications. Google also says it's partnering with companies like HP to "include the Nearby Share app on select Windows PCs," which makes it seem to me that Nearby Share will come preinstalled on those select devices at some point.

If you want to set up Nearby Share on your Windows device, you can follow our guide.

Google first launched Nearby Share to let you transfer files between Android devices in 2020, and even then, the feature felt like a major catch-up move; Apple released AirDrop for iOS and macOS in 2011. Google has also brought Nearby Share to ChromeOS to make it easier to share files between Android devices and Chromebooks.