A long-awaited upgrade to Google’s sharing service is finally rolling out
Summary
- Google started rolling out Quick Share to non-Galaxy devices today, making file sharing more unified for all Android users.
- However, the updated Quick Share experience on non-Galaxy devices is missing some features, such as link sharing and private sharing.
- The integration does include the ability to show available devices in the share sheet, making it easier to share files between devices.
Earlier this month at CES, Google announced that it had partnered with Samsung to bring Quick Share to every Android phone. Samsung’s Quick Share service has long coexisted with Google’s Nearby Share service on Galaxy devices, but the two services are finally interoperable with one another. By integrating Nearby Share into Quick Share, Samsung users no longer have to pick between two distinct file sharing services. And by updating the Nearby Share branding to match Samsung’s, Google has made the file sharing experience between Galaxy and non-Galaxy devices feel more unified. However, not all the functionality has been carried over with the rebrand.
When Google started rolling out Quick Share to non-Galaxy devices earlier today, users noticed that the updated experience doesn’t include all of the features available in Quick Share on Samsung devices. For instance, the ability to create a temporary link to share files isn’t available (link sharing) and neither is the ability to temporarily share encrypted files (private sharing).
Quick Share on Samsung devices
One feature that did make its way over to Google’s version of Quick Share, however, is the ability to show available devices in the share sheet. This feature makes it so that nearby Quick Share targets appear directly in the share sheet, so you don’t have to tap the Quick Share button to open the service’s full interface before sharing files with your other devices. From what we can tell, only your own devices will appear as targets in the share sheet.
Nearby Share (left) vs. Quick Share (right)
This change makes sharing files between your devices even easier than before. Google has actually been working on surfacing Nearby Share targets directly in the share sheet since last year, but it’s only with the arrival of Quick Share on Android that they’ve started to roll this feature out. We’ve spotted this feature on a Google Pixel 7 Pro, a Google Pixel 8 Pro, and a OnePlus 11 so far, but several users have told me that Quick Share targets aren’t appearing for them in the share sheet. It’s possible this specific change is tied to a server-side flag that’s separate from the one controlling the Quick Share rollout, so keep an eye out for Quick Share devices appearing on Android’s share sheet.
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